534 APPENDIX. 



receive and have charge of all the property of the agricultural division of the 

 Patent Office in the Department of the Interior, including the fixtures and 

 property of the propagating garden. He shall direct and superintend the ex- 

 penditure of all money appropriated by Congress to the department and render 

 accounts thereof, and also of all money heretofore appropriated for agriculture 

 and remaining unexpended. And said commissioner may send and receive 

 through the mails, free of charge, all communications and other matter pertain- 

 ing to the business of his department, not exceeding in weight 32 ounces. 



Sec. 4. And be it fiirther enacted, That the Commissioner of Agriculture 

 shall appoint a chief clerk, with a salary of two thousand dollars, who in all 

 cases during the necessary absence of the Commissioner, or when the said prin- 

 cipal office shall become vacant, shall perform the duties of Commissioner, and 

 he shall appoint such other employees as Congress may from time to time pro- 

 vide, with salaries corresponding to the salaries of similar officers in other 

 departments of the government; and he shall, as Congress may from time to 

 time provide, employ other persons, for such time as their services may be 

 needed, including chemists, botanists, entomologists, and other persons skilled 

 in the natural sciences pertaining to agriculture. And the said Commissioner, 

 and every other person to be appointed in the said department, shall, before he 

 enters upon the duties of his office or appointment, make oath or affirmation 

 truly and faithfully to execute the trust committed to him. And the said Com- 

 missioner and the chief clerk shall also, before entering upon their duties, sev- 

 erally give bonds with sureties to the Treasurer of the United States, the former 

 in the sum often thousand dollars and the latter in the sum of five thousand 

 dollars, conditional to render a true and faithful account to him or his successor 

 in office quarter-yearly accounts of all moneys which shall be by them received 

 by virtue of the said office, with sureties to be approved as sufficient by the 

 Solicitor of the Treasury; which bonds shall be filed in the office of the First 

 Comptroller of the Treasury, to be by him put in suit upon any breach of the 

 conditions thereof. 



Approved May 15, 1862. 



CHANGE IN RANK OF THE DEPARTMENT. 



The department was made an executive office of the first rank under the law 

 approved by President Cleveland February 9, 1889. By that act the title of 

 the head of the department was changed from Commissioner to Secretary, and 

 he became a member of the President's cabinet. 



AN ACT to enlarge the powers and duties of the Department of Agriculture and to create an 

 Executive Department to be known as the Department of Agriculture. 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States 

 of America in Com/ress assembled. That the Department of Agriculture be an 

 Executive Department under the supervision and control of the Secretary of 

 Agriculture, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advise 

 and consent of the Senate; and section one hundred and fifty-eight of the 

 Kevised Statutes is hereby ainciidcd to include such department, and the provis- 

 ions of title four of the itcvisid St:ilutes, including all amendments thereto, are 

 hereby made applicable to s.iid dciiartment. 



Sko. 2. That there shall be in said department an Assistant Secretary of 

 Agriculture, to be appointed by the President, liy and with the advise and con- 

 sent of the Senate, who shall perform such duties as may be required by law or 

 prescribed by the Secretary. 



Sh:(;. 3. That the Secretary of Agriculture shall receive the same salary as 

 is paid to the Secretary of each of the Executive Dopartmeiits, and tln^ salary dT 

 the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture shall be the same as that now paid to the 

 First Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior. 



