k I 



34 



^\)t -farmer's illcmil)ltj faisttor. 



A Short Debate in Congress. I 



We sfltloin ftive the reailers oCtlie Visitor tlic 

 proceedings of Uoiigress — ibr tlie very yood 

 rdiisoii that the debates ihfre usually have to do 

 with politics, and not vviili a;;riculiiire. The foj- 

 lowiiifi dis(nission in llic I'. S. Senate, however, 

 wonlii seem to he (thout the first in uliirh agri- 

 cultural matters have been named (Inriufr iIk; 

 present session, and we eopy il into our rohiinns 

 t'roni the W'ushinglon Union, of March 18, as of 

 some interest to our reailers. It was upon the 

 question of printing 30,000 extra copies of the 

 annual report of the Commissioner of J'atents — 

 the only public document, we believe, which us- 

 ually treats ofayricidtural matters — and we be- 

 lievi: that a vote v/as snbsequonlly passed to re- 

 duce this luuiiber to 5000. 



REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS. 



Mr. Athekto.v, of New Hampshire, rnoveil 

 to take up liie report of the Couunitteeon Print- 

 ing, reco;nmending the printinf^ of the report of 

 the Commissioner of Patents, and briefly advocat- 

 ed the |irinting of liie ninnber of copies recom- 

 mended by the connniltee, who had evinced their 

 desire to cconomiKe by recomniendinf! the print- 

 ing of a much less nundier than last year. 



!\Ir. Sevjf.b, of AiUansas, entered into .some 

 liistorical details relative to the origin and pro- 

 gress of lite iiatent oilice, and expressed his great 

 alarm in beholding the magnitude which it had 

 assumed. It had actually grown up to bs a 

 branch of the goveinment. He was rpiite alarm- 

 ed at this. The fathers had got on very well in 

 their good old moderate way, wiih a patent olilce 

 confined to a single room in tlie old post office. 

 But now they had got a great granite building — 

 and a commissioner — and a team of clerks — and 

 connected with it, he believed, a squadron of the 

 navy, which liad gone over the whole world to 

 Ijring back stones, and fossils, and birds, and 

 Fejee wige. 



Mr. Cass. Egyptian mummies. 

 Mr. Sevier. Yes; and also Egyptian mum- 

 mies — and all sorts of seed? — turnip seed, and 

 cabbages, and lettuces— in fact, almost every 

 thing he had beard of, and a great many things 

 of wiiich he had not heard, with names which he 

 could not .make out at all, imd had to get his 

 friends from Alabama and Pennsylvania to make 

 out their meaning for him. 'I'liey had gcnie far 

 enough in this business. He was tired of this 

 spending money for the printing of a hook about 

 buckwheat and Indian corn. Of the documenis 

 accompanying the President's message, fidl of 

 valuable information relative to the foreign rela- 

 tions, the finances, army, navy, Indian afJ'airs, and 

 everything else of the cuinitry, only fifteen hun- 

 dred copies were printed. This patent office had 

 gone too fin- ahead. It had absorbed the public 

 priming. in a great degree. It had all turned out 

 just as lie had anticipated years ago when it was 

 proposed to build that magnificent structure. 

 He supposed if the revulsion of 18.37 had not 

 e«me they would have proposed to build a great 

 national church alongside the patent office', so 

 that they might all worship there beside that na- 

 tional curiosity. He thought a slop should he 

 put somesvhyre to that magiiificuut humbug — the 

 patent office ; which bad actually lecturers at- 

 tached to it ; yes, lecturers to leacli lininers ! He 

 was a farmer liimself, and he could teach those 

 leclurers— he could. I,et Senators only thitdt of 

 it — leclurers to teach men how to sow oats! Hi' 

 never went to hear sucii lectures. How much 

 did the pali'iit ofiicecost.' Could his friend from 

 Peniis_\ Ivania, [Mr. Ca.mero.\,] tell? No; he 

 shook his head, he could not tell. Nobody could 

 tell. He sn|ipusc(l it cost more than the Stale 

 Deparlment. .Ml of their old commii<lores and 

 captains were iiislrncled to fill up their vis.sels 

 with seeds and plants, and all sorts of irash. and 

 to bring them to the patent oflice. He liopetl his 

 friend iiom Conncciicut, [Mr. Niles.1 who with 

 liiwiseli; generally sioiwl at ihe door ol the ticas- 

 ury, and took care of all the money they had got 

 there, would limit the numher to i'nc iIiojisjukI ; 

 that would be ipiite sufficient. A cart Inuil ol 

 tide (locuinent had been sent to his village, (hi' 

 (li<l not live id one of their i;r.eat eitiis;) uiid as 

 he did Jiotcvirry on a gr<ja^ correspontleiice — he 

 bad a good character in that respect, aiul he rec- 

 ommendrd his example lo other senalors; he did 

 notanswi.'r any letters at all ; that was by liirlhe 

 best plan— he did not often hear from the (lost- 



mastei:, but one day he found him in a terrible 

 pucker because his documents filled up bis 

 riioni so that he could not turn himsi'lf abiiiil. 

 The fact was, that was not a very scientific place, 

 and he (ftlr. S.) did not move in a lilerary circle ; 

 it was true ihey had some literary characiers in 

 the village, but be did not lielong to them. He 

 thought tliat six men could be li)uwl in his vil- 

 lage who would read the document, and there- 

 fore he would agree to take six copies of the 

 ilocuinent. 



Mr. Benton, of Missouri, regarded the ipies- 

 tion as one much more important than ihe print- 

 ing of a document. He was opposed to the sys- 

 tem of expending the public moupy i'ur the pub- 

 lication of a document made up in a great meas- 

 ure of communications furnished in reply to cir- 

 culars issued from the patent office, by jiersons 

 who bad no object but to get their names pub- 

 lished in a public document. The volume had 

 swollen to one tlioiisaud pages ; and at the rale 

 at which it had grown, it would soon amount to 

 two or three ihousand pages. But he was op- 

 posed to the princifile of leaching the people ag- 

 riculture in this way. It was the remark of a 

 wise man, no longer amongst them, that if the 

 government would uiu'ertake to instruct the peo- 

 ple in the art of raising corn, they would soon he 

 obliged to (lurchase the seed Ibr them. It was a 

 vain idea, that of the governnieiit teaching the 

 |ieo|ile agriculture. In the West, it was well 

 known, thai after the first year, the fiiruiers bad 

 no occsion to buy seed. The only exception in 

 bis (i\Ir. B's) State, had been that of a very learn- 

 ed gentleman, who had iniderlaken to write a 

 book on the subject of plaining corn. The ex- 

 pense of the work ofinstructing the people in ag- 

 riculture was not the only objection — that would 

 be assuming a task never contemplated by the 

 Ibunders of the government, and one which 

 would only tend to injure the agricultiuists. 

 Let agriculture be left, as in Englaiul and France, 

 to she f;irmers themselves, aiul to the periodicals 

 and works which were devoted to their interests 

 and pursuits. 



Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania, said that the 

 objection raised on the score of expense against 

 the diffusion amongst the agricnitr.ral classes of 

 a work which had been sought for with so much 

 eagerness, was easily met. There was a surplus 

 ftind of more than $100,000 to the credit of the 

 patent oflice, and it was only just that some por- 

 tion ol' it should be returned to the people by 

 the |>uhlication and circulation of a document 

 vvhich had met with such uuei|iiiv(ical favor. He 

 could hardly undertake to reply seriously to tiie 

 assnalts which had been made upon the patent 

 office as a useful deparlment of the public ser- 

 vice. It was well kiiowti that at that office intel- 

 ligence at once valuable and gratifying, was daily 

 received in relation to the progress of all the 

 useful arts amongst the American peo|ile. In 

 his ojiinion one oi" the highest aims of govern- 

 ment was the encouragement of the arts of civi- 

 lization in a legitimate and proper manner. Thaf 

 end was gained in an ominent degree by the 

 patent oflice. But be would not go into an ar- 

 gument on lliiit snhjecl. As to talk about the 

 expimse of publishing Ibis document, all he had 

 to say was, that no doubt some gentlemen were 

 very anxious to show their great desire to ecou- 

 omi/.e l)ie public expenditures. Perhaps at tl|.e 

 proper lime be (Mr. C.) would evince an equal 

 desire to attain that end. But he thought Ihat^ 

 in the pieient inslaiice, the ellbrt was somewhat 

 forced. His object in rising w;js simj)ly to cor- 

 rect what he believed was a misapprehension on 

 the part of the senator fiom Connecticut, [Mr. 

 Niles,] who had stated tliat he had before him a 

 pumphli't I'oiiiaiiiing lli.u rejKi;t «f the Coinmis- 

 sioiier of Patents, issued liy .so4iie publisher in 

 Philadelphia, and that some members of Con- 

 gress had sold the document. It would have 

 been more libi'ral and nearer ithe uiai^ to have 

 supposed the fact that llie Pliiladi'Iphia publish- 

 er, aw^ii; of ihe value of the document and its 

 popularity, had ordered an edition from the juil)- 

 lic printer for his use. That >;as a common 

 procedure. He hoped tJ,iut tJiere would lie no 

 aUerutlon in the nu.miber,of copies; recummendei] 

 .10 be 4;rinled by ihccoyiitrtltee. 



Mr. Nu.Ks, of t;rume.c.t.i(uit, oaid tie Iiad n wxjrj 

 to say. Hince lliis tjuciilion was ;ip ibe other 

 day, he hud looked into the history of tJje legis- 

 Jaiioii Oil III.-! subject, .so far as thore had be^i 



any to sanction the cinnpilation and publication 

 of these reports, and lie fiuind it to be this: in 

 \S'M'> the patent office was re-organized, and 

 raised from a mere clerkship, altai.hcd to the 

 Sliite Department, into an independent Imreau, 

 or, perhaps he might say, an independent de- 

 partment. Ill the act passed at that time, there 

 was a section appropriating one thousand dollars 

 to he expended by the (Joiiimissiuner of Patents 

 in collecting agricultural stali^tics. It was a mere 

 appropriation, and could have no effect beyonil 

 the ensuing year. Since that period, there has 

 been annually an appropriation of one thousand 

 dollars Ibr the same object, until last year, when 

 ail appropriation of three tliousanil dollars was 

 smuggled through Congres.'i for procuring agri- 

 cultural statistics, without the restriction that it 

 was to he ex|ieiided by the Commissioner of 

 Patents. I say (said i^lr. N.) this appropriation 

 was smuggled through (Jongress, because I be- 

 lieve that very few members of either house 

 knew anything about it ; and much less did they 

 know the object for which it was intended. No 

 one can have supposed that this three thousand 

 dollars was designed to create another office, and 

 be a provision for paying the incumbent. But 

 such, he underslood, bad been the fiicl ; this sum 

 had been given to another person, the gentleman 

 who had formerly been at the head of the patent 

 office, who had collected the inlbrmation which 

 made up the present report. We had now two 

 oflicers, each receiving three thousand dollars 

 per annum ; one who look charge of the patent 

 oflice, and another who collected statistical in- 

 formation and compiled the report on agricul- 

 ture. What was a mere clerkship a few years 

 ago had grown up to be an intlependeiit depart- 

 ment, aiul u/a.s now dividing ilself and Ibrming 

 aiiother distinct and independent buivau, which 

 (night be called the bureau of agriculture. We 

 have taken the first step, and have to take but 

 one or two steps more, and this bureau will he 

 established. The senator from New Hampshire 

 [Mr. Atherton,] misunderstood his remarks the 

 other day. He did not say that this proceeding 

 was wholly without law ; but he said it was ir- 

 regular, and, in the extent to which it bad gone, 

 was without any legal regularity or sanction. — 

 What is the legal authority ? VVhy, previous to 

 last year, it has been an annual appropriation of 

 one thou.sand dollars, to be expended by tlio 

 Commissioner of Paleiils in procuring statistics 

 of agriculture. .'\n appropriation hill does not 

 usually involve an expenditure beyond tlio 

 amount approprilited ; but in this case, the ap- 

 propriation of one thousaiul dollars has grown 

 into all expenditure of one hundred thousand 

 dollar.*, But the appropriation was Ibr colleciing 

 agricultural slalisties. And how has it been ex- 

 pended .■" Why, in collecting materials consist- 

 ing of essays on agricultural subjects — some 

 original, and others extracts from oilier pnblica- 

 ^ions — tor a large volume, w hicb is called a re- 

 port. In this publication laiit year, consislin;/ 

 o( inore,tliaii five hundred pages, there witc hul 

 livo panics of agricultural italis;licii It has none 

 of the qliaracteristics of a riquiri, but is a volume 

 cojiipgsed ol" essays and articles on various agri- 

 cultural subjects, many "f which had appeared 

 ill other agricultural )>nblitNitioiis in llie country. 

 He lliouglit it time to pui u st'.ip tu such iriegn- 

 lyr and useless expeiidilurts. He had a wciril 

 10 say in reply to the remarks of the s».-iial(>r 

 from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Camero.n ;[ he was not 

 mtsiaketi in his remarks the other day in regard 

 to these leporis having been in the hands of iho 

 book-5«iHe,!s-, The senator supposctl tjic ropy li» 

 read was u re-print of this report. It was iioj 

 so. Th«,copyoii his table is our publication^ 

 and one of the copies printed by order of Con 

 gress. No hook-seller has re-published this re- 

 port. I'hey could purchase il cbca(ier llian iliey, 

 could re-p(inl; and if tiny had re-pumled if, 

 thev V.o.n/d liaio done it in a uiucb cheafwr fiiriii. 

 The copies »o have primed >\l the publi.r e.\- 

 jiense have found their way into the ImimiIs ai 

 the book-seUers ! and il was not fiir him lu saj 

 how they jjot thiire. 



J^ Si/RUinyi-y Beast. — Said a jnirchrvser to a 

 l(orsedca|er, " Js that animal sure-footed .'"-- 

 " Perfectly," f'ald «'"' jockey ; " when he puis |ii 

 foot dowii, ygi/.J lli'iuk he was never going tc 

 ^aKe il iiji' '' 



