NATURE 



197 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1872 



THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF 

 AGRICULTURE* 



THE absence of a Department of Agriculture from the 

 complicated scheme of British Government offices 

 leads us to inquire whether it is possible for such a 

 Department in the United States to publish annually 

 eleven or twelve hundred pages of matter useful to the 

 agricultural community, and whether those publications 

 have any considerable circulation in the country. 



The question of circulation is abundantly answered by 

 a resolution of the House of Representatives passed on 

 July 14, 1870 (the Senate concurring), which enacted, 

 " That there be printed of the Annual Report of the Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture for 1869 tiuo hundred ami tiocnty- 

 flve thousand extra copies, one hundred and eighty 

 thousand of which shall be for the use of the House, 

 twenty thousand for the use of the Senate, and twenty- 

 five thousand for distribution by the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture." These figures are so startling in their 

 magnitude that they seem to prove too much, until we 

 recollect that the United States of America extend over 

 an area proportionately enormous, including every grada- 

 tion of climate, from the sub-tropical to the sub- arctic, and 

 every variety of culture, from the cotton and rice of the 

 south to the corn and roots of the north. 



That these publications contain matter useful to the 

 agricultural community will be readily admitted after even 

 a cursory examination of either of the volumes ; and a 

 careful study of the official reports will lead many 

 people to ask why we in England are not similarly 

 favoured. The United States' Department of Agriculture 

 fulfils two functions. It is primarily a Department of 

 Administration, but it is also charged to acquire in- 

 formation concerning agriculture by means of books 

 and correspondence, by practical and scientific e.\- 

 periments, by the collection of statistics, and by any 

 other appropriate means. The papers in its annual 

 volume include well-considered reports by all the 

 chief officers of the Department, including, besides the 

 Commissioner himself, the statistician, the chemist, the 

 entomologist, the superintendent of the garden and 

 grounds, the botanist, the editor, and others. The papers 

 beyond these official documents consist, for instance, of 

 Reports on Agricultural Education in Europe, on the 

 Beet-Sugar Industr>' in Europe, on the Agricultural 

 Resources of Alaska, on Agricultural Meteorology, &c. 

 There are also papers on special subjects, many of them of 

 the highest scientific value, such as are published in the 

 journals of agricultural and other societies, and which 

 may be regarded as supplementary to the strictly official 

 work of the Department. 



With such a sketch of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture before us, it seems worth while, even in the 

 pages of a scientific journal, to compare it with our Eng- 

 lish institutions. We have no representative of it as a 



* Report of the Commissioner ot Agriculture for the year 1868, 8vo, pp. 

 671, Washington, 1869. Ditto for 1869, 8vo, pp. 702, Washington, 1870. 

 Monthly Reports of the Department of Agriculture for the year 1868, 8vo, 

 pp. 483, Washington, 1868. Ditto for i86g, 8vo, pp. 4iq, Washington, 1869. 

 Ditto for 1870, 8vo, pp. 498, Washington, 1871. 



VOL. V. 



department of administration ; but we have a series of 

 unconnected departments and commissions, which are as 

 fancifully associated and divided as the stars of heaven in 

 the time-honoured system of constellations. The Privy 

 Council, for instance, takes cognizance of science and art, 

 the education of children, and the diseases of animals. 

 But why it should be the duty of the same high official to 

 protect our flocks and herds from scab, cattle-plague, and 

 other contagious diseases, and at the same time to edu- 

 cate our children, we cannot understand. Is the Vice- 

 President of the Privy Council an ex officio Admirable 

 Crichton, or is there some mysterious connection between 

 the three R's and pleuro-pneumonia.? Another of our 

 agricultural anachronisms is the Copyhold, Tithe, and 

 Enclosure Commission, which is the State authority on 

 drainage and cottages, as well as the national land sur- 

 veyor, valuer, and actuary. The Statistical Department 

 of the Board of Trade is entitled to great praise for the 

 manner in which it performs its varied work, including, 

 besides a statistical report on the imports and exports of 

 the United Kingdom, a fair statement of the agricultural 

 condition of the country from year to year. Leaving out of 

 the question the new Local Government Board, the Local 

 Government Act Department, the Poor Law Board, and 

 other departments which are more or less connected with 

 the agricultural interest at home, we come to the Board 

 of Customs, on which agriculturists are dependent for the 

 enumeration of our agricultural imports and exports, 

 while the nation looks to it for the collection of the revenue 

 on our claret and cigars. 



Neither as a means of disseminating information have 

 we any representative of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, with its Annual Report, printed at the expens^ 

 of the State in editions of nearly a quarter of a million. 

 It is true that the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 

 with less than 6,000 members, does more, probably, in its 

 special walk than any other private society in the world ; 

 but it is still nothing more than a private society, and 

 it cannot possibly, therefore, cover the whole ground re- 

 quired by the progressive agriculture of the present day. 

 Indeed, it is, by its charter, expressly prohibited from in- 

 terfering in matters which are questions of either law 

 or politics. Its efforts are therefore confined to " prac- 

 tice " and " science," and it supports a large staff of 

 scientific officers, including a chemist, botanist, veterinary 

 inspector, engineer, and others, absolutely without State 

 aid ; it also expends at least 2,000/. per annum in testing 

 machinery ; gives away 3,000/. per annum in prizes for 

 the best animals ; promotes experimental investigations ; 

 and incurs very serious risk in exposing adulterations 01 

 manures and feeding stuffs. 



It may, doubtless, be urged that if English farmers can 

 do so much for themselves they require no help. But 

 practically our Government has found out that there are 

 things to be done which only a Government can do. 

 Thus, after the nation had suffered fearful losses by the 

 ravages of cattle-plague, it ordered an investigation of 

 the subject, and — published a blue-book. After the con- 

 dition of the agricultural labourer, and especially of 

 women and children employed in agriculture, had been 

 stigmatised as a blot on our civilisation, it issued a Royal 

 Commission, and the result of this excessive effort for 

 the advancement of agriculture was — a series of blue 



