US Presidency
1850

More than three fourths of our population are engaged in the cultivationof the soil. The commercial, manufacturing, and navigating interests areall to a great extent dependent on the agricultural. It is therefore themost important interest of the nation, and has a just claim to the fosteringcare and protection of the Government so far as they can be extended consistentlywith the provisions of the Constitution. As this can not be done by theordinary modes of legislation, I respectfully recommend the establishmentof an agricultural bureau, to be charged with the duty of giving to thisleading branch of American industry the encouragement which it so welldeserves. In view of the immense mineral resources of our country, provisionshould also be made for the employment of a competent mineralogist andchemist, who should be required, under the direction of the head of thebureau, to collect specimens of the various minerals of our country andto ascertain by careful analysis their respective elements and propertiesand their adaptation to useful purposes.