ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. College of Agriculture of California.. 2. Short cranberry-vine, (New Jersey). 3. Long cranberry-vine, (New Jersey). 4. Cultivated varieties, (New Jersey)..

5. Black-knot, (Sphæria morbosa, Schweinitz)..

6. Oidium spores of the foreign grape-vine.

7. Arkansas Industrial University..

8. Hampton (Virginia) Normal and Agricultural Institute....

9. Diagram illustrating system of irrigation.....

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Frontispiece.

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REPORT

OF

THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

Washington, D. C., October 26, 1874.

SIR: It gives me great satisfaction to believe that the operations of this Department for the past year have served to awaken and greatly increase a spirit of improvement in the agricultural interest of the country. A territory so extensive as ours, possessing every variety of fertility and every diversity of climate which are congenial to the productions of the earth, and with a population whose habits, manners, customs, enjoyments, and wants differ as much as the climate in which they live or the countries from which they come, requires a supervision which shall adapt itself as much as possible to the appreciation of their condition, meet their wants, and make that provision for their necessities and improvement which their segregated situation will not allow that they should make for themselves. The isolated situation of the farmers affords them few opportunities of keeping step with the rapid march of the world's progress, and any aid which can be given them by this Department is as strongly marked as it is highly appreciated. For their benefit it has been the province of this Department to seek for the best seeds which the world can supply, to study their adaptation to the soil and climate of the country, and to put them into the hands of those who will make them profitable to the sections where they respectively reside. When any discovery is made in the method of cultivation or propaga tion, it is promptly communicated through the medium of a monthly publication. Many persons are always engaged in this and other countries in making experiments to improve seeds and plants as well as new methods of their cultivation, whereby the work of the farmer may be made more profitable; these are anxiously watched, and their results. promptly communicated, and, when successful, availed of by extensive distribution. The counsel, advice, and information of the Department are cheerfully given to all persons who apply for them on any subject which pertains to the business of agriculture.

This Department has never been unmindful of the expression which Congress gave to its purpose to improve the condition of the agriculturist by the act of 1862, which made provision for the establishment of a college in every State of the Union, whereby he may obtain scientific knowledge, and thereby elevate his calling to that standard which will give him a place in the race of competition in which all the world is en

gaged. I have taken much pains, by publications and otherwise, to promote this great object, because it cannot and should not be concealed that the purely literary institutions of the country are hostile to the suc cess of what they please to call a "new education." Indeed, the president of one of the most distinguished of these institutions, and who is a representative man, at an educational convention at Elmira, N. Y., took occasion to condemn the entire policy of the national and State governments regarding scientific and industrial education. There is perhaps no employment on earth which so constantly brings into requisition the principles of science as that of agriculture, and the Representatives of the people can render no better service to the cause of humanity and universal prosperity than to educate the farmer; give him botanical knowledge of the germinating power and structure of the plant he cultivates, the physiology of the horse he drives, the geology of the earth he walks upon, and the chemical properties of the land he deals with; and who can tell the ultimate progress which agriculture will make? The common schools of the country prepare the rudimental foundation upon which the colleges will build the scientific structure.

There is no incident which so cripples the operations of this Department as the want of the punctual publication of its Annual Report. For the last two years, the report has not been published. And while Congress, at its last session, apparently made the effort to order the publication of the Annual Reports of 1872 and 1873 for the use of Congress, in the opinion of the Public Printer it failed to attain its object. While I do not concur in this opinion, it is due to him to say that to print them involved a doubtful construction of the law, a responsibility which he was unwilling to take, and the reports for the use of members of Congress have not been printed. I regret this, because I believe it a matter of great political importance that these reports should go directly from the Representative to the constituent. It is one of the defects of our Government that it is too far removed from the attention of the people. In my judgment, it would be well if they were more frequently reminded that they had a Representative here who constantly cared for the interests of his constituents; that they had a part in the administration of the country; and it is not less worthy of remark that the Representative better knows who would appreciate this document so anxiously sought after. But, by a separate provision of the act, there was made an appropriation specially to this Department of $50,000 for the printing of the Reports of 1872 and 1873. These have been printed and delivered to the Department for its distribution, and which has served to relieve it from the obligation it was under to its correspondents at home and abroad. Both volumes being now in stereotype, I suggest that Congress may order them to be struck off for their distribution.

In making this my annual report, I cannot be unmindful of the approaching Centennial of the Independence of the United States. No such opportunity has ever occurred for such an exhibition of the progress which this country has made in its agriculture, its horticulture, its