The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1866-03-29
The Cost OF Uncle sam's Truck
Patch.

There Is q branch of the Government, To-
Gated at Washington, called the depart
mcnt Of Agriculture" It Is presided over
by one Isaac NEwroN-whethcr lncal
dcscendent of the immortal British Astron-
mcr or the astronomer himself as his name
would import, We can not say. hut great
man is he, unquestionably. The main du-
ties vi this bureau Is to collect seeds and
plants aud roots an herbs, and hand over
packages of them to members of Congress,
&c, to send home to farmers aud garlners,
and the Ike, 10 propagate, II has attached
TO Il an experimental garden, comprising
ten aores. wherein tllapommissioRer devel-
ops his genius IN tho@ several branches, 81
that when he is successful In learning any
thing new In the science of potato planting
or the enlargement of cabbagc-hcads, he
can be able TO impart knowledge or his
new discovery and new system 20 the be-
uighted farmers and garlners of the ooun-
try all about, Now, this Is certainly most
excellent idea, u valuable species ofnational
enterprise, and should be amply encouraged.
IL we do not have tu "pay too dear for the
WHISTLE" Whether We are getting the full
value Of this kind of information for what.
we are annually paying, we confess our
selves incapable of Judging, We viii he
content To state the case, aud then more
practical Judgments can reach their own
conclusions.
Resolutions Of inquiry having passed the
Honsc, as TO the yearly expenses of this
Agricultural bureau, how much had been
received, from any source, and how much
expended, since the bureau was opened,
May 10 1862 an official response came, a
few days back, presenting this most mar
vclous array of figures:
Total expenses since May 18th 1862 sl95i7l Us
Total Receipts 3
Net cost Of Agricultural Bureau. foricss
than -four ycars Sta6 ia ~
What a pity it Is, forthedgnity Of round
numbers, that those figures could not have
reached the financial niche, one hGlf miliioal
tEom this aggregate there was disburscd,
during that period, |
Fur seeds. aud expenses" conccrning
them am aig 10
For propasAting in thctcu acrc truck ''''''''
For "cNpermcnting,' &c isSn 10
Total OF these three items ...... $91agSs ~
A Washington correspondent Of the
Commercial, in making this expose, has been
SO indiscrect rs to assert that most of these |
seeds are purchased from seed Merchant
friends in Philadelphia and elscwhcre,''l
specifying one house whose bill, for the
month of January last, was SLG32, and
adding: "People - unsophlsticatcd and
honest people, TO whom this great dcpart- |
menL in its distance, is enohanting-imaq-
ine that the seeds received are all imported
from some glorious Garlcnof Eden, in the
old world, and that something enormously
great or magnitcently beautiful will be
the result of successful fructihation."
The festive spot of all this exhibit Is the
one where we see propagation" in aid of
which only thlrty-one thousand four hnn-
dred aud thirty-tour dollars aud thirty-two
cents have been "nyestod.T Sir Isaac has
a little Gsrm; that's the nab of it. And it is
Government land, plowed by Government
horses, titled by Government Iaborcrs.
planted by Government seeds, and the nr,-
ducts--what becomes thereofg That's the
question.
Again--we quote:
-. NOW we come to little bill of Sl3,aMl-
W paid for experimenting i'm truck match
NO =. People Of good, common horse
sense viii think am Joking, and that this
IS hoax rs egregions rs the moon hoax; |,
nut tisnt. IL isa literal reality 4 field
OF probably ten acres-from which not a
pea or bean or 'yerb or a lanonica or n
cantelopc has been raised--a field has been
plowed and narrowed and measured with
red tape, all tor the small pittahce OF thir-
teen thousand dollars,"
Aud right here comes in The Joke and the
laugh;
"lle sent special envoy to China for the
purpose of asccrtaining the 1aoRr The
hlhese had of making sugar aud sir,,p
lrom the Chinese or sorghum cane. lie I
Ilie's ntk 'strange as u may appear,
lllh NOT tnd IN their agricultural works, or
IN actual practice, the slightest evidence
mat the Chinese cultivate sorgho for any {
llhef purpose Whatever than for chewing
VI sucking the stalks. The plnnt a MOI q
valuable product by the =,
There! "and that's the way the money {
yoes| Taxpayers, what have you got 10 r
'ay about ity These "bureaus" are becom- I
ny much more extravagant kind of fur =
litue than our Grand-mothers set up
house keeping with, in the more primitive 5
lays of the Republic.
Thumb-Screwed.
This iavorite means Of punishment so
frequently practiced on the poor soldier, by b
'rutal shoulder-straps, during the war, {
GEMS to have become a "ciyll' institution 3,
n some parts of the South. We find, for a
Instance, In the Aberdeen, Miss, Sunday n
'Ogth, that In Monroe County ..James Pat al