98 THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



committees in accordance with well established rules and 

 customs of the House. Thus, when the book of estimates is 

 received by the Speaker of the House, to whom it is sent by 

 the Secretary of the Treasurj', he merely refers the various 

 estimates to the appropriate committees, without any formal 

 .action on the part of the ?Iouse itself. 



The Committee on Agriculture in the House of Represen- 

 tatives, to which are referred the estimates for the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, was established as a standing com- 

 mittee, May 3, 1820. At first it was hardly more than a 

 convenient repositor}- for the petitions and memorials re- 

 lating to agriculture which from this time began to reach 

 the House in increasing volume. Unimportant at first, it 

 has gradually grown to a place of importance among the 

 many committees of the House of Representatives. 



Section ten of Rule eleven of that body gives to the 

 Committee on Agriculture jurisdiction of all subjects re- 

 lating to agriculture and forestry and the appropriations for 

 the Department of Agriculture.'' In practice the scope of 

 this jurisdiction has been construed very liberally. 



From the personnel of the committee it would appear that 

 effort has been made to make its eighteen members fairly 

 representative of the principal agricultural sections of the 

 country. Its present chairman, Mr. Asbury Lever of South 

 Carolina, is a strong advocate of public aid and encourage- 

 ment to agriculture. He has done very much to secure con- 

 gressional support of the relatively large number of meas- 

 ures passed in the interest of agriculture during the past 

 few years. 



Unlike the estimates for most of the departments and 

 services, those for the usual appropriations of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture are considered by only one committee, 

 and when presented constitute only one bill. This obviates 

 the necessity for cooperation with any other committee. 



In keeping with the general practice of congressional com- 



'' Hind's Precedents of the House of Representatives, vol. iv, 

 sec. 4149. 



