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tleman whom he named. The climate, in the first place, in Dakota, and 

 the manner of their farming, is so different from ours, that the expense is 

 very great there, and on these large ranches of California the waste is»more 

 than the profits upon a Dakota farm. These are not economical farmers 

 on these large ranches; for instance, this large ranch we have heard so 

 much about is not farmed economically. Such large bodies of land can- 

 not be farmed economically by one individual, they must be subdivided 

 in order to get the best results. Take a farm of one thousand acres where 

 the owner is the superintendent, he can put his wheat in the sack for $5 an 

 acre; I know that from personal experience, though I have no doubt that 

 it does cost those large ranches $7 an acre. I know it can be done on a 

 reasonable farm for less money, and that we have hundreds and thousands 

 of acres of that kind of land that is not adapted to fruit. That is the only 

 question that I had to raise against this paper read by my friend, General 

 Chipman, because it is a paper that is very valuable going into our reports, 

 and I indorse it heartily. 



Mr. Georoe Husmann: A few words in regard to a point made in that 

 paper, and that is the proper acknowledgment that was made to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for its strenuous efforts during the last administration 

 to forward the interests of horticulture. We know that during the admin- 

 istration of the present Commissioner of Agriculture, Norman J. Coleman, 

 there have been larger strides made in that direction, than during all the 

 time that his predecessors w r ere in office. He has created that division of 

 pomology, the first time that it was ever acknowledged by the departments, 

 and has spent nearly all of his administration in strenuous efforts to 

 thoroughly reorganize and remodel that department, until it is now in good 

 working order. But what are the means at his command ? Last summer 

 he was compelled to suspend his statistical agents scattered through all the 

 States of the Union for one month, because the appropriation for them was 

 expended, and at the same time when President Cleveland comes out he 

 does not know what to do with the public money. If a little of that sur- 

 plus now in the Treasury of the United States were expended for the benefit 

 of the farming community through the Department of Agriculture, enabling 

 these men to do what ought to be done for the farmers, it would be of incal- 

 culable benefit to us. 



Mr. Johnston: There is an organization known as the Order of Patrons 

 of Husbandry, and they have been knocking at the door of the Cabinet at 

 Washington for twenty-one years. They have been admitted to the outer 

 court, and on the fourth day of March next we expect a gentleman to enter 

 there with a portfolio as Secretary of Agriculture, where we will be recog- 

 nized throughout the world as a body of industrious people. 



General Chipman: The Department of Agriculture as we know it took 

 its origin as late as 1862, and when old Sir Isaac Newton, as we used to call 

 him there, a great ponderous barnacle, as everybody considered him, went 

 into his little cubby-hole down in the bottom of the Interior Department 

 and began to run the Department of Agriculture, he was the butt of Con- 

 gress and all Washington, and when he began to issue his agricultural 

 report without binding, it became wrapping paper for most of the grocery 

 packages around town. Now who was to blame ? The farmers themselves. 

 They go right along without seeking to gain their political rights. This 

 situation induces me to offer this resolution: 



Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to draft a suitable petition to be sent 

 forward to Washington, requesting that in the organization of the new Department of 

 Agriculture the Department of Pomology shall be duly recognized and provided for. 



Carried. 



