48 
Uiiited States, through the agency of Congressmen, the county reporters for the 
Division of Statistics, and the Department. To show how sincerely this dissemi- 
nation is appreciated, remember that each person receiving these seeds is requested 
to experiment therewith and to report results. The records of the Department show 
that these 9,000,000 of packages reached more than 1,500,000 addresses, and we have 
heard, out of that million and a half of citizens, from 1,500 of them, in round num- 
bers. In no case has tbere been any report by which the value of these seeds, or the 
things which grew from them, can be ascertained. In nearly every case where a 
report has been made, it has been like that of Oliver Twist on soup— they have asked 
for more ! I shall recommend that this appropriation, which has amounted to $160,000 
annually, be utterly abolished, and that in its stead there shall be an additional 
appropriation made to each experiment station in each State and Territory of the 
United States, which shall be for the purchase of seeds by the station director, him- 
self authorized to get those things which may be adapted to his soil, climate, and 
environment. Then we shall really have experiments with new and improved vari- 
eties. This last year, at the suggestion of Dr. Dabney, Assistant Secretary of Agri- 
culture, an appropriation was put in, as a sort of amelioration to Congressmen, who 
disliked to give up this cheap method of electioneering through packages of seed, so 
that $30,000 should be used for the publication of plain, practical bulletins for the 
farmers upon such topics as might be deemed important at the time. And now the 
question to be determined by this coming Congress is, Which shall do the most good 
to the agriculture of the United States, the distribution of unfertile turnip seeds or 
the dissemination of live thoughts among the farmers of the country? A bulletin 
will convey thoughts with very much more certainty of doing good, it seems to me, 
than seed packets will convey seed. The results of this seed appropriation in late 
years have not been at all satisfactory. Besides their cost, they have loaded down 
the postal service. Last year's seeds weighed, when packed and put into the mails 
of the United States, more than 305 tons; and you may well imagine that that much 
dead matter assists materially in increasing the deficiency in the postal service. 
Now, it seems to me that this distribution of bulletins should meet with your 
approval; and certainly that a direct appropriation made for each station for the 
purpose of the purchase of new and improved varieties of seeds will also meet with 
your approbation. 
A word more, and that is to say that, while the seeds are generally annuals, 
there is another planting that may be taught in experiment stations which will 
produce things of far greater duration. I refer now particularly to forestry. In this 
country the extent of denudation of hillsides in every State of the Union is illus- 
trating every day what vast waste comes to the lands in the valleys. In many 
X>ortions of Pennsylvania, where the hillsides and mountains have been deforested, 
the sweeping torrents have poured down with such force as to wash away all the 
surface soils of the valleys. In the State of Ohio to-day there are 1,000,000 acres of 
land, which a few years ago were fertile and productive, which are to-day absolutely 
untillable, because from the erosion of the water pouring down the hillsides the soil 
has been washed away. In view of this denudation and its results here, as well as 
in the presence of the vast waste that has occurred in European countries from this 
same cause, it seems to me that every agricultural experiment station and college 
should have at least' a kindergarten school in forestry. We are using in this country 
now 30,000 acres of timber every twenty-four hours. To-night, because of its con- 
sumption by railroads and manufacturers, there are 30,000 acres less of timber than 
there was this morning. We have only 460,000,000 of acres in the entire Union of 
States and Territories, and it is not a difficult problem to solve, nor does it take a 
very profound mathematician to see that in a few generations this country will 
be as denuded of timber as the Orient is to-day. And remembering that nothing 
lives so long as a tree and the truth, I commend this question of forestry to you for 
your most thorough consideration. 
