HISTORICAL SKETCH 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT. 



EARLY GOVERNMENTAL AID OP AGRICULTURE IN AMERICA. 



The Department of Agriculture had its origin in the farsighted 

 wisdom of Washington and the practical activity of Franklin. The 

 former as President suggested the organization of a brancli of the 

 National Government to care for the interests of farmers, and the latter, 

 when the agent of Pennsylvania in England, sent home silkworm eggs 

 and mulberry cuttings to start silk growing. When the representatives 

 of the new United States Government went to foreign lands after the 

 Eevolution they followed Franklin's example. The number and value 

 of their contributions increased till Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth, of Con- 

 necticut, in 1839, induced Congress to make a trial of a small appropria- 

 tion for the distribution of the seeds, cuttings, etc., thus collected, and 

 for the publication of agricultural statistics. The experiment was 

 successful and the worlr of the Department has since had a steady 

 growth. 



Governmental aid to agriculture, however, antedated the time of 

 Washington and Franklin, though it was desultory and uncertain. 

 James I, in 1622, encouraged the breeding of silk worms in Virginia; in 

 1642 the general court of Massachusetts offered premiums for sheep 

 raising, and in 1057 the Virginia legislature passed an act to stimulate 

 the raising of hops. In 1732 a parcel of government ground in Georgia 

 was allotted for growing mulberry trees in aid of the silk culture, and 

 in the ten years preceding 1743 Parliament granted $600,000 to pro- 

 mote the cultivation of indigo and other crops in Georgia. In 1748 

 Parliament put a premium on silk culture in the colonies, and in 1766 

 the South Carolina assembly voted £1,000 for the establishment of a 

 silk filature in Charleston. In 1775 the South Carolina and Virginia 

 legislatures were taking steps to encourage the sheep industry, but the 

 Eevolution came on, and all special efforts in behalf of agriculture were 

 lost sight of. 



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