The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1880-06-19

agriculture, forestry, mines, stock
breeding and surveying.
In France the ministry of agri-
culturs and commerce is one of the
nine departments of the govern,
ment, the minister being a secretary
of state, having charge of every
thing that relates to the agricul-
tutal interests of the empire, even
to the drafting of all laws relating
to this science.
In Great Britain, agriculture is a
subordinate interest 1t has no
secretary, nor minister, nor depart
ment II, that realm. The statistics
of agriculture are under the control
of the board of trade, which reports
only the annual acreage of crops.
Mr.. Chairman, who can gainsay
the fact the distressed condition of
Ireland to-day is attributable to this
subordination of agriculture to other
interests, and the absence of sec
retary of agriculture from the privy
council of the Queen of the British
Isles;
But, Mr.. Chairman, upon the very
threshold of this discussion | may
bs asked, how can an increased pay
of the Commissioner of Agricul
ture, or even all enlarged jurisdic-
ton of the Department, benefit the
American farmer? / reply, in no
wise directly; for it will not dimin-
ish his burdens individually, neither
will it tighten his labors, nor in
crcsse the productive capacity of
his farm But as a member of that
great majority class of our entire
population, who create the wealth
of this country will be greatly bene
flied. Increase of pay means IN
crease of authority and power, and
a judicious exercise Of both by an
official Of the Government rebounds
to the advantage of the eEpeople in
dividually and collectively.
1t is not asked that Government
assistance should be substituted for
individual exertion in developing
the agricultural resources of our
country; but the farmers demand
that the Government shall secure
by adequate salaries such talent in
Agricultural Department officials as
can and will guide and direct them
when groping in the dark after
scientific truth; for be it remem-
bered, Mr.. Chairman, agriculture is
a science, and it would be no pene-
gyric to call it the mother of seem
ces. We know it is the source of
ali our National wealth, and the
very bedrock of our National pros
perity. Some may style this the
poetic phase of the question, but
not so with me. | speak for those
who feed the cotton-gin and the
grain-th thresher and walk between
the plow- handles, and not for those
who write rural poetry and chant
georgics and bucolics, when assert
that agriculture is a science, and the
most occult of all sciences, the sue
cessful evolution of whose truths
not only requires consumption of
time and expenditure of labor, but
a disbursement of money far in ex-
cess of the accumulated wealth of
private individuals.
An appropriation is asked for in
this bill to continue the recent ex-
periments made by the Agricul-
tural Department in the manufac
ture of sugar. Since the days of
John Adams it has been known to
the American farmers that both
molasses and rum could be made
from the juice of the stalk; and
twenty years ago hundreds of un-
successful efforts were made to
manufacture sugar from sorghum
But failure attended every effort
until the Government, by oft re-
peated and costly experiments, es,
tablished, beyond a peradventure
that there is but little less crystalliz.
able sugar in the juice of sorghum
than there is in the juice of the
sugar cane of the West Indies; anc
after carefully conducted expert
ments in the laboratory of the De
partment the computation has beer
made that less than one-fifth the
cultivated area of Illinois, if grown
in sorghum, could be made to pro
duce annually more sugar than W.
import. Nay more, sir, the unques
toned conclusion has been arrived
at, from successful experiment ane
legitimate computation, that Illinois
might produce and crib her million:
of bushels of corn, and from tht
, stalks manufacture annually more
sugar than we have ever imported
in a single year. To my mind, sir
/ this is one of the grandest discove
: ries of the nineteenth century, anc