REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 



lated by Buckingham Smith, esq. This manuscript was probably 

 taken to Spain after the suppression of the order of the Jesuits in 

 Mexico, in 1767. The Pima language was spoken by the tribes from 

 the river Yaqui, in Sonora, northward to the Gila, and even beyond 

 the Colorado, eastward beyond the mountains in the province of 

 Taraumara, and westward to the sea of Cortez. The phrases given 

 in these works will preserve the knowledge of what constituted the 

 food of the inhabitants ; their manner of living, their character, and 

 native customs, &c. This may prove of historic interest hereafter, 

 if the facts be nowhere else more circumstantialby authenticated. 



Meteorology. — From 1856 to 1861 an appropriation was made from 

 the agricultural fund of the Patent Office for assistance to the Insti- 

 tution in collecting and reducing statistics relative to the climate of 

 the United States. This was commenced while the Patent Office was 

 under the direction of Judge Mason, but was suddenly discontinued 

 under a change of administration. The propriety of an appropriation 

 for this purpose, from the fund above mentioned, must be evident to 

 every one who reflects on the intimate connexion between meteorology 

 and agriculture. A knowledge of the peculiarities of the climate of 

 a country is an essential requisite for the adoption of a system of 

 scientific culture. The average temperature of the spring, autumn, 

 and of the growing season ; the ratio of the number of unfavor- 

 able to favorable years ; the amount of rain, and moisture ; the 

 average time of the occurrence of late and early frosts, are all facts 

 of importance in the economical adaptation of the crops to a given lo- 

 cality, in order to obtain the maximum of produce from a definite 

 amount of labor. 



The money received from the Patent Office was expended in assist- 

 ing to defray the expense of the reductions of the observations, and 

 as soon as the appropriation was stopped we were obliged to discon- 

 tinue this part of the operations. The Institution, however, still con- 

 tinues to derive some benefit from its association with the Patent 

 Office, in receiving through it, free of postage, the returned registers 

 from the different observers. 



Unfortunately, the postage law adopted at the last session of Con- 

 gress prevents the correspondents on agriculture and meteorology 

 from sending their reports by mail unless prepaid. This arrange- 

 ment almost entirely stops the reception of these articles, for, since 

 the service rendered is gratuitous, the observers cannot be expected 

 to bear this additional burden. It is to be hoped that Congress will 

 so modify the law as to remove this obstruction to a correspondence 

 of great importance to the agricultural interests of the country. 



