8 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURAL DIVISION OP PATENT OPPICE. 



Ill 1S3G Hon. Heury L. Ellsworth, of Connecticut, Commissioner of 

 Patents, received from Government representatives abroad and from 

 others considerable quantities of seeds and many plants, and distributed 

 them to enterprising farmers throughout the country. This he did with- 

 out Government authority or aid further than the use of the franks of 

 Congressmen who Mere his personal friends. He also urged in his 

 report that the Government take ux) the work of aiding agriculture in 

 this and other wavs. 



FIRST APPROPRIATION BY CONGRESS. 



His suggestions and arguments led to the appropriation in 1839 of 

 $1,000 for the purpose of collecting and distributing seeds, prosecuting 

 agricultural investigations, and procuring agricultural statistics. The 



money was to be taken from the 

 Patent Office fund and the work 

 was to be done under the Com- 

 missioner, at that time an official 

 of the Department of State. In 

 his report, made in January, 

 1811, Commissioner Ellsworth 

 stated that 30,000 packages of 

 seeds had been distributed dur- 

 ing the year and that agricul- 

 tural statistics, as gathered in 

 the census, were being prepared 

 for publication. In 1842 these 

 statistics were published, with a 

 survey of crop conditions and 

 prospects. Progress in agricul- 

 tural science was reviewed and 

 special notice was made of the 

 manufacture of sugar from Indian corn and the use of lard oil in place 

 of whale oil for lighting. A firm, it was stated, was seeking to make a 

 contract to supply the light-houses on the Great Lakes with maize oil. 



GROWTH OF THE WORK IN THE PATENT OFFICE. 



The distribution of seeds and the collection and publication of agri- 

 cultural information continued under succeeding Commissioners of 

 Patents. These were Edmund Burke, of New Hampshire; Thomas 

 Ewbank, of New York; Silas II. Hodges, of Virginia; Charles Mason, 

 of Iowa; Joseph Holt, of Kentucky; William D. Bishop, of Connecti- 

 cut; Philip r. Thomas, of Maryland; S. T. Shugert; and David P. 

 Holloway, of Indiana. In 1819 the Department of the Interior was 

 established, and the Patent Office, with its agricultural work, became a 

 part of it. The collection of seeds and publication of agricultural statis- 



Henrv L. Ellsworth, 



Commisiouer of Patents. 



1836-1845. 



