248 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



that dried peaches are regularly sold higher in this city than raisins, and 

 that there is no better place for the growth of the fruit than Southern Illi- 

 nois; and that it certainly should be produced as low as raisins, which pay 

 a large duty, beside cost of production. 



Mr. Lancaster. — We import largely of silk. I hope the time will come 

 ■when silk will be produced in our country'. I would suggest hops. 



Mr. Carpenter. — The cultivation of the hop is very precarious in our 

 country. I know, some years since, the farmers of Delaware county cjuitted 

 the making of butter, and went largel}^ into the cultivation of the hop, but 

 at that time hops sold for such a small price in this market, that they soon 

 returned to the making of butter. 



The Secretary. — Hops are now in great demand since tlie brewing of ale 

 and lager bier has so increased in our country. Large quantities are 

 exported to England, v/here they sell for remunerating prices. 



Mr. R. G. Pardee. — I see among our visitors to-day, Mr. R. C. McCormick, 

 Chief Clerk of the Department of Agriculture at Washington. I hope he 

 will give us some information in what is doing in that department. 



Mr. McCormick. — 1 have risen from a sick bed to attend the meeting of 

 the Club to-day. I came as a listener, and did not expect to say a word 

 to-day on the importance of agriculture. I congratulate you, gentlemen of 

 the Farmers' Club, that the government of the United States has established 

 the Department of Agriculture; the interest of the farmers of the country 

 will doubtless sustain and cherish it. 



It is true, the Patent office has done a little in this matter, but from the 

 Ume of Washington to the present, agriculture has never occupied any dis- 

 •tinctive position in our government. 



The Department has commenced the formation of a museum, in which is 

 •already collected a number of things of interest to the agriculturist; among 

 them are specimens of cotton grown in sixty different sections of Illinois; 

 the specimens are very good, and there is no doubt that cotton can be 

 raised in the whole of the southern portion of that State. 



Sorghum is rapidly becoming an important crop in Illinois and other 

 western States. From statistics received at the Department, it appears 

 that about forty millions of gallons of sorghum syrup were manufactured 

 out of the crop of 1862. 



Experimental gardens have been established at Washington, and it is 

 intended that others shall be located in different sections of the country. 

 The objects and aims of these gardens are to procure and encourage the 

 transmission of seeds, cuttings and plants from all sources, both foreign 

 and domestic, for the purpose of testing their merits and adaptation for 

 particular locations and climate of our country, to ascertain by experiment 

 the influence of varied modes of culture, to investigate the various maladies 

 and diseases of plants, the insects that destroy them, &c. 



I am pleased to see that there is a growing taste for agriculture, and 

 that gentlemen who have amassed fortunes in our city, hie to the rural 

 districts and make it the height of their ambition to possess fine farms. 



I see before me men who have been educated to the plow, and I rejoice 

 to know that such men meet weekly to discuss important subjects con- 

 nected with agriculture, that are constantly coming before the Club. 



