1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARJNIER. 



535 



these articles . Both are quickeners in the soil, 

 and are excellent for most crops. We are now 

 sprinkling pear trees with copperas water to pi"e- 

 vent ravages of the pear slug. 



If, however, we were to applj^ copperas and salt- 

 petre to the soil, under pear trees, we should dis- 

 solve one pound of each in four gallons of water, 

 making eight gallons for the two pounds. Sowing 

 the same articles in a powdered form might answer 

 / the purpose as well, if the ground were moist. 

 Tiie two pounds would be sufficient for some 

 twenty or thirty trees. Please experiment on other 

 trees with each article by itself, and let us know 

 results. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



The Monthly Report for July of the Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture gives an interesting histori- 

 cal sketch of the' origin and progress of this De- 

 partment. 



Up to the year 183G, the patent office business 

 was transacted by a clerk of the Secretary of State. 

 That year it was made a separate bureau, and Hon. 

 Henry Ellsworth was appointed the first Commis- 

 sioner of Patents. Immediately after his appoint- 

 ment the idea of connecting with the models of the 

 numerous agricultural implements which were 

 collecting in his office a deposit<jry of valuable and 

 rare seeds engaged his attention, and M-ithout spe- 

 cial legal authorization he commenced a system of 

 collecting and distributing such seeds and plants> 

 on a small scale. 



On the21stof January, 1839, Hon. Isaac Fletcher, 

 of Vermont, chairman of the Committee on Pa- 

 tents of the House of Representatives, addressed a 

 letter to Commissioner Ellsworth, requesting the 

 communication of information relative to the col- 

 lection and distribution of seeds and plants ; also 

 relative to the practicability of obtaining agricul- 

 tural statistics. To this letter of inquiry the Com- 

 missioner responded on the following day, reciting 

 the action already taken by him to further the 

 cause of agriculture, and assigning many reasons 

 why his previous recommendations should be 

 adopted. In this conimunication the Commissioner 

 suggested that "arrangements could be made for 

 the "exhibition of ditferent kinds of grain, exotic 

 and indigenous, in the new Patent ofHce." In the 

 closing hours of the Twenty-fifth Congress, (act of 

 3d March, 1839,) the Commissioner was gratified 

 by the passage of an api)ropriation of §;1060, to be 

 taken from the Patent (Mbee fiiml, for the purpose 

 of collecting and distributing seeds, prosecuting 

 agricultural investigations, and procuring agricuf- 

 tural statistics. Thus originated the agricultural 

 division of the Patent Office. 



In his next report, that for 18-10, the Commis- 

 sioner stated that the foreign ministers and offi- 

 cers of the navy had been requested to aid in pro- 

 curing valuable seeds, &e., and in his report for 

 1841, he stated that 30,000 packages of seeds had 

 been distributed, and that measures had been taken 

 to collate the agricultural statistics from the re- 

 turns of the census of 18-10. "The importance of 

 an annual report of the state of the crops in differ- 

 ent sections, as a preventive against monopoly, and 

 a good criterion to calculate the state of exchange," 



was commended to the consideration of Congress, 

 and from this suggestion were-evolved in time the 

 annual agricultural reports. 



Congress made no further appropriation in 1S40 

 or 1841. From 1842 to 184o an annual appropria- 

 tion was made. In 1846 it was omitted, and re- 

 sumed in 1847. In no year up to 1854 did the an- 

 nual appropriation exceed ;^ooOO, and it was gener- 

 ally below that sum. 



But we cannot now follow the writer in his de- 

 tails of the history of the department, and of its 

 reports and other labors, further than to say that 

 Mr. Ellsworth resigned in 184o, and was succeeded 

 by Hon. Edmund Burke, of New Hampshire. In 

 1849 Mr. Burke retired and was succeeded by Hon. 

 Thomas Ewljank, of New York. In 1852 Mr. Silas 

 Hodges, of Vermont, was appointed Commissioner ; 

 in 1853 Hon. Charles Mason, of Iowa, was ap- 

 pointed ; who was succeeded in 1857 by Hon. Jo- 

 seph Holt, of Kentucky ; he by William D. Bishop, 

 of Connecticut, in 1859. Hon. Philip F. Thomas, 

 of Maryland, and Hon. Thomas G. Clemson were 

 acting commissioners in 1860. In 1861 S. T. Shu- 

 gert, Esq., took the office and held it till May, 

 1862, when the Department of Agriculture was es- 

 tablished. 



Under the new organization, Isaac Newton, of 

 Pennsylvania, was appointed first Agricultural 

 Commissioner in 1862. He died in 1867, and was 

 succeeded bj' Horace Capron, of Illinois, who re- 

 signed August 1, 1871, and Hon. Frederick Watts 

 has been commissioned in his stead. 



The total expenditures by the Government for 

 the encouragement of agriculture, from the first 

 appropriation of §1000, in 1839, to the 30th daj^ of 

 June, 1871, exclusive of the cost of printing the 

 agricultural reports, are stated at .§'2,019,893. The 

 total cost of the Imiiding eirected for the use of the 

 Department of Agriculture, furniture included, 

 was .§140,000, and the cost of the conservatoiy, 

 was about .§25,000. 



Farm Maciiixeky. — In reply to a young farmer 

 who asks, "Will farm machhiery pay at first r" 

 Mr. J. Harris replies as follows, in the American 



Agrictdturist : — 



I should buy as little machinery as possible. In 

 my experience, with a few exceptions, it costs as 

 much, with ordinary hired help, to do work by 

 machinery as by hand. I asked a fanner who has 

 had considerable experience with machines, if they 

 paid ? "If bought with good judgment," he re- 

 plied, "and usecl with great care, I think they do." 

 A f\irmer can lose more by using a broken, one- 

 tined fork, a dull, rusty hoe, a worn-out ax, and a 

 battered-up spade than he can save by using a ma- 

 chine to saw wood or a reaper to cut his grain. A 

 small farmer had better /lire the work done with a 

 machine than to Iniy the machine himself. 



To Take Bruises out of Furniture. — Some- 

 times a valuable article of furniture gets a bruise 

 which remains an "eye sore" to persons who like 

 to have everything "neat and in order." From 



