COMMISSIONER CAPRON'S 'I'ERM. 13 



This was the first iustauce of the kind in case of so important a 

 work. 



An investigation of Texas cattle fever was made and Mr. Capron 

 recommended the establishment of a division of veterinary surgery. 

 The propagation of cinchona plants was begun with a view to intro- 

 duce the culture in the* warmer sections of the country. 



Experimental Farm Given up — Division of Botany.— From the OUtset it 

 it had been recognized that the experimental farm at Twelfth and B 

 streets was too small because of the mixing of varieties of seeds when 

 cultivated close together. Mr. Stokes, in his report accompanying 

 General Capron's, recommended that the farm be converted into an 

 American arboretum. This suggestion was adopted the more readily 

 becattse the new Department building was being erected on the 

 grounds. 



The Division of Botany was organized in 1868. It was upon the 

 suggestion of Prof. Joseph Henry, of the Smithsonian, who stated that 

 considerable quantities of botanical specimens were lying at the Smith- 

 sonian unmounted and that they could be made available to the 

 Department of Agriculture if there were a botanist. The collection 

 came from the Hayden and other explorations in the West and from 

 the Japan Expedition. It was agreed upon further conference of those 

 interested that a herbarium should be established in charge of the 

 Department of Agriculture. C. C. Parry was appointed botanist to 

 arrange and care for the specimens and to do other work in that line 

 as it should arise. 



The high standing of the Department before the world, as well as 

 the leading position already attained by American agriculture, is indi- 

 cated by the selection of the second Commissioner to direct the inau- 

 guration of improved methods of farming in Japan. That people was 

 then at the threshhold of. the development which has placed it among 

 the great nations. A commission had been appointed by their Govern- 

 ment to develop agriculture, and they chose General Capron as chief 

 adviser. He resigned the commissionership on June 27, 1871. 



COMMISSIONER WATTS'S TERM. 



Judge Frederick Watts, of Carlisle, Pa., was appointed by President 

 Grant to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Commissioner 

 Capron. He had been on the bench in the ninth Pennsylvania dis- 

 trict before the war, but in 1858 abandoned the law for farming. He 

 was a native of Carlisle, and a graduate of Dickinson College. He 

 was the first jiresident of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, and 

 for twenty-seven years was president of the Cumberland Valley Eail- 

 road Company. 



Commissioner Watts found in operation the Divisions of Chemistry, 

 Garden and Grounds, Entomology, Statistics, and Botany. This brief 

 roster affords an interesting comparison with that which represents 



