608 AGRICULTURE. 



mation as could be derived from agricultural reports, news- 

 papers, and official correspondence with leading citizens in all 

 parts of the country. The correspondence was mainly con- 

 ducted by means of printed circulars, containing inquiries by 

 the commissioner, to which replies were returned on the same 

 sheet. The same general plan of obtaining information is 

 observed by the Department of Agriculture to-day. Fifteen 

 pages of comment followed the tabular statement, embracing a 

 survey of the agricultural condition and prospects of the coun- 

 try. Special subjects of comment were the manufacture of 

 sugar from Indian corn, and of lard oil as a substitute for 

 whale oil, as an illuminator. In this year Congress appropri- 

 ated another $1000 from the Patent-Office fund, for agricultural 

 purposes. There was no appropriation in 1840 and 1841. From 

 1842 to 1846, the annual appropriation from the fund was con- 

 tinued, but in the latter year it was again omitted. In 1847 it 

 was revived, and afterwards annually renewed up to 1854, when 

 the policy of appropriating money from the fund was aban- 

 doned ; the whole amount ($39,000) drawn from it was reim- 

 bursed in 1855. After 1853 appropriations for agriculture were 

 made every year, directly from the treasury. In no one year, 

 up to 1854, did the annual appropriation exceed $5500, and it 

 was generally below that sum. 



In his report for 1842, the commissioner recommended "the 

 constitution of an agricultural bureau, or at least an agricultural 

 clerkship, at a moderate expense." He further recommended 

 "a sufficient appropriation to allow a personal examination of 

 the various parts of the country, by some one well qualified for 

 such duty." Accompanying the report was an elaborate essay 

 by the commissioner, sixty pages in length, on the condition and 

 prospects of American agriculture ; also, a tabular estimate of 

 the crops of 1842, occupying two pages, the data for which 

 were obtained from the sources previously relied upon. The 

 preparation of the table was stated to have been "no easy task." 

 Several communications from farmers and others, on practical 

 questions relating to agriculture, were printed in an appendix, 

 and some of them were illustrated by cuts. From them may be 

 dated the practice of publishing details of individual experience 

 and elaborate essays, in the annual agricultural report. 



