THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF 

 AGRICULTURE 



CHAPTER I 



Introductory : A Brief History of Federal Agricul- 

 tural Legislation in the United States 



When one contemplates that immense organization known 

 as the United State Department of Agriculture, with its 

 thousands of officers and employees scattered over the entire 

 United States and its insular possessions, and, in peace times, 

 exploring the remotest regions of the earth, it seems almost 

 incredible that it has existed as an executive department of 

 the first rank hardly three decades. It is true that an in- 

 stitution called the Department of Agriculture, under direc- 

 tion of an officer styled " Commissioner of Agriculture," 

 was established by Act of May 15, 1862.^ However, it was 

 not until February 9, 1889,* almost exactly a century after 

 the establishment of the Government under the Constitu- 

 tion, that this greatest of all American industries was given 

 the recognition of a seat in the President's Cabinet Council. 



This delay in granting such recognition to so large and 

 important a part of our industrial and social structure was 

 not due to a lack of demand on the part of those directly 

 interested, but rather to certain feelings or traditions in the 

 minds of many of our legislators and other men of influence. 

 First, there was a very prevalent opinion that the activities 

 of the general government should be limited to what might 

 be termed political affairs as distinct from those which had 

 to do with domestic industry and commerce. It is note- 



* 12 Stat. L. 387; Rev. Stat., Sees. 520, 521. 

 2 25 Stat. L. 659. 



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