Houses of Congress, for transcripts of official 

 recordafer foreign governments and home so- 

 cieties, for employment of experts in special 

 investigations, for writing matter for monthly 

 and annual and special reports, the sum of ten 

 thousand dollars is appropriated, not enough to 

 pay the one item for routine work of record 

 and tabulation ! Without straw, without even 

 clay, statistical brick making is thus required I 

 And yet the annual report, a fractional part of 

 this indicated work which is thus placed on star- 

 vation diet, is deemed worthy of publication to 

 the extent of three hundred thousand copies, 

 and an appropriation of $130,000 ia made for its 

 publication. " Such is legislative economy "sav- 

 ing at the spigot." It is the wisdom of a bread- 

 maker who would save his yeast only to spoil 

 his flour. It is a feast of cheese-parings supple- 

 mented with a champagne supper. While $130,- 

 000 is for volumes for Congressional distribu- 

 tion, and $60,000 is for seeds and plants similarly 

 distributed, $10,000 is deemed enough for the 

 division charged with the most onerous and 

 important work of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture. In addition to this stroke of economy, 

 reduction of the Department printing fund will 

 necessitate the stoppage of the monthly report 

 with the November number. Better infinitely 

 than such crippling and dwarfing of the work 

 of investigation required by the organic act 

 creating the Department, to cut off all appro- 

 priations except for seeds and plants and run the 

 institution exclusively as a seed store, or else 

 abolish it altogether. Yet we ought to expect 

 in this day of progress, legislative action for the 

 public weal and national improvement, on a 

 high plane for the public good alone, increase of 

 national production, advancement of intelli- 

 gence and skill, and enhancement of general 

 comfort and happiness. 



In conclusion allow me to express the hope 

 that the "Agricultural Congress" may be 

 prominently instrumental, in the present and 

 in the future, in stimulating a desire for practi- 

 cal knowledge among the rural population, in 

 disseminating wise views of agricultural meth- 

 ods and systems, and in increasing the wealth 

 Mid happiness of its great constituency. 



AGRICULTURAL REFORM. 



By THOS. P. JANES, M. D. 



Mr. President and Members of the National 

 Agricultural Congress: I have been at a loss to 

 know why your President invited me to address 

 you, unless acting on the idea that " necessity is 

 the mother of invention," he hoped that I might 

 be the bearer of some novel thoughts, the off- 

 spring of the necessitous, struggling condition 

 of my people. If this was his expectation, I fear 

 he must content himself with disappointment. 

 It is true that we have for the last decade strug- 

 gled up from the ashes of despair through the 

 most adverse circumstances. 



The land-owners of the South were left in 

 1865 as the captain of a vessel after a storm in 

 mid-sea, without rudder or compass, with even 

 his sailors overboard, and his supplies exhausted. 

 By a single stroke of the Executive pen two- 

 thirds of the entire taxable property of the South 

 was destroyed, and the productive power of the 

 remainder seriously impaired. 



In Georgia alone, the taxable property was re- 

 duced $500,000,000 in forty-eight hours. These 

 facts are mentioned in no spirit of complaint or 

 reproach, but simply as a matter of history to 

 illustrate our condition at the beginning of the 

 last decade, and to show that we have been 

 "practicing" for ten years what I propose to 

 "preach" to-day. 



I invite your attention to a few thoughts and 

 suggestions on the subject of 



AGRICULTURAL REFORM. 



I will discuss it under the three leading heads: 

 Individual, State and National. 



As the aggregation of individual citizens con- 

 stitutes a state politically, so the aggregation of 

 the accumulations of individual wealth consti- 

 tutes the material body politic of the state. 



Without a pure, conservative, patriotic citi 

 zenship, good government is impossible. 



Without economy, system, and industry in the 

 individual, state or national prosperity is equally 

 impossible. 



In a government like ours the material pros- 

 perity and resulting contentment of the individ- 

 ual is indispensable not only to the advancement 

 of the state in material wealth and greatness, 

 but to her political, moral and religious purity. 



The material prosperity of the individual being 

 the corner-stone of national greatness, his ad- 

 vancement morally, intellectually and materially 

 becomes a question of vital moment, and should 

 command the most careful attention of the 

 statesman and patriot. 



The agricultural portion of every community 

 constitutes its most conservative element be- 

 cause of their attachment to the soil, their isola- 

 tion and consequent removal from the corrupt- 

 ing influences of trade, and the ennobling influ- 

 ence of their constant association with the de- 



