National Republican., 1883-04-13
THE AGRICULTURAL BUREAU.

THE AGHlCULTURAL BUREAU.
What n High Authority in English Agrl-
cultural and Business Matters Has 20
Say About IL.
A recent issue Of the, Mark Lane Express
has long article on our Agricultural depart
ment and its work, in the course of which it
says among other very pleasant and compli-
mentary things:
To begin at where the commissioner him
self makes an end perhaps il may surprise
some of us on this side of the Atlantic accus-
toned to the frugal doling out of blue books
which are no sooner issued than they are out
of print, to read that within the year the
department has issued, besides 100000 copies
of its own interesting annual reports for 1850
and 1881, no less than II special and mis-
cellaneous reports-all replete with agricul-
tural interest and instruction valuable to the
farmers of America, and not without consid-
cradle value to our own farmers here. OF the
special reports sent out since July, 1881, one
profusely illustrated, and making UP %
large octave volume, related to the contagious
disease of animals, and of this $4,000 were
printed. In America, itwould seem, 1t is not
the minister of education but the commits
sioner of agriculture in whose charge lies
sphere in which so much practical knowledge
is needed, and in which so very much yet re-
mains to be done as the detection and pre-
vention of cattle disease. Reports followed,
some 10000 of each being issued, on the con
dition of the crops of the various states in
June and July, August and September. A
paper on the needs of spring wheat culture in
the northwest and the final estimate of cereal
production in the United States in 1881
closed the series. This, however was fol-
lowed after April, 1882, with number of re-
ports on the condition of winter grain and the
M n
cotton growing and corn planting, on the
prevailing rates of wages, on the area and
condition of all the cereals as the season ad
vauced, the famous report OH "Silos and
Ensilage," which we were able to lay before
our readers in the columns of this journal
before it reached in any other way the agri-
cultural public who in these days of difficulty
are forever eager to hear some new thing
To set down here a chronicle of the whole
series of documents scattered broadcast by
the American government would convert this
leader into n library catalogue. Among tho
special reports, however, may be noted those
on Florida and its climate, on the Pacific
scpe and its agricultural features, and Prof
Atwatcrs treatise on fertilizers and co-opera-
tive experiments on their use.
Other documents for agricultural instruc-
ton will be ready for issue when further funds
are available, for in America, as in England,
official work cannot be done without some
spending of dollars. In America, however,
unlike England, the spending of money to
aid the development of agriculture does not
seem to be grudged and stinted. No less a
sum than something like 973,000 in our cur
rency appears to have been devoted by con-
gress to the several appropriations" ac-
counted for in this report, in the fiscal year
ending thirtieth of June last AS only some
f2,500 remains unexpended, it would seem
that the republic can afford to spend in the
-
yearly total of over 10000. Such an exam
pie ought not to be thrown away on our slow
moving authorities here.
Among the other items of outlay, the special
grant of seeds to overfowed districts bulks
pretty prominently, so also does the cost of
the inquiries made into the diseases of swine
and into the history of insects. Experimental
work as regard sugar manufacture, the cul-
ture of tea, the examination of woods, and so
on, also come in for share of the votes, and
in every line of the account the languid and
now also despairing agriculturist of the old
world may read the vigorous determination
of youthful and ambitious community de-
termined TO leave no stone unturned to keep
its farmers abreast of the times, to direct their
labors into the most profitable channels, and
to miss no opportunity of extending in every
new direction their already expanding COM
petition with the products of the whole uni
verse.
1t is difficult to Gull from volume Of such
interest to us all the references which we
ought perhaps to make. We shall no doubt
have more than one occasion of returning to
this record oflwhat Americans have got to say
respecting the advance of agriculture in
America in the past year. Suffice it to note
that the significant admission here appears
Contagious pleuro-pneumonia still prevails
among cattle in the states heretofore in
fected," although the consolation is offered
that no extension of the infected area has to
be reported on this occasion. The call on the
department for veterinary service appears TO
have been unusually severe, and we believe
this has arisen from the late but wise deter
mination Of the government Of the United
States to turn degree of attention hitherto
denied to the examination of the real facts OF
the case among their stock.
A birthday Party.