DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 609 



The report for 1843 was st ^ more voluminous than that for 

 1842. The tabular estimates, letters from correspondents, and 

 remarks by the commissioner were continued. The statement 

 was made that the labor of the commissioner, in compiling 

 agricultural information, was chiefly performed out of office 

 hours. The remarks on the condition of the crops and the 

 growth of agriculture challenge admiration by their compre- 

 hensiveness (120 pages), their minuteness of detail, and the 

 thorough acquaintance with the agricultural resources of the 

 country manifested by the writer. A more extended system of 

 investigation was recommended. The distribution of foreign 

 seeds had been continued during the year, and 12,000 packages 

 would be distributed during the following year. 



The report for 1844 showed increased industry and enthu- 

 siasm by the commissioner. It was more voluminous than any 

 preceding report. The potato rot, which began in 1843, tne 

 ravages of the Hessian fly and other insects, and the various 

 diseases to which wheat and other grains are subject, were 

 referred to at length in the general review, and in the papers 

 contained in the appendix, and remedies were suggested. Some 

 of the most valuable papers in the appendix were reproduced 

 from the agricultural and news journals of the day. 



On the 30th of April, 1845, Mr. Ellsworth resigned the office 

 of Commissioner of Patents. The facts in his official career 

 have been given in some detail, because he was really the 

 founder of that branch of the government now embraced in the 

 Department of Agriculture, and as such entitled to honorable 

 mention in these pages, and because the first successful steps 

 in the work of securing government recognition of agriculture 

 deserve to be recorded. 



Hon. Edmund Burke, of New Hampshire, succeeded Mr. 

 Ellsworth as Commissioner of Patents. The report of the 

 commissioner for 1845 was the largest that had yet appeared, 

 filling 1184 pages, less than 100 of which related to patents, 

 the remainder being devoted to agricultural topics. The annual 

 reports of the Department of Agriculture have seldom exceeded 

 700 pages, and have not averaged above 650 pages. Mr. Burke 

 introduced into the report many new features, prominent among 

 which were tables of British and United States imports and 



