Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-10-26
SEEDS, BUGS AND FIGURES.
Matters That Occupy the Attention Of
Secretary Rusk and Assistants.
The Agricultural Department. Scenes In
the Seed Room and Other Divisions
The Microscope as an Aid to Ag.
northumberland
Animal Diseases.

The city man, who never made two blades OF
grass grow where there was only one before
and who cannot tell q moving machine from q
gang-plow, may in his small, prejudiced urban
way look upon the Agricultural department. as
rather useless expense upon the government.
Not mauy permanent residents Of Washington
have ever visited the big red building sur.
rounded by q perfect bower of plants and
flowers which stands back in the northeastern
. corner Of the mall and overlooks the business
portion Of the city. II any Of them have formed
an opinion that this is an unimPortant depart
ment Of the government they have reached II
more through ignorance of the work conducted
by the department than anything else. II
they knew how much of interest could be
learned by q visit it would not be long before
they would avail themselves of the first oPPor-
tunity that came.
Entering the wide-open doors one finds him.
self on the first floor Of the building. There Is
nothing unusual there. The doors OF the ofhce
rooms. the lounging messengers in the halls,
the glimpse through open doors of clerks bend
ing over their paper-bestrewn desks does not
suggest to the visitor much Of interest or out
of the usual order. The air does not differ to
any extent from that of other departments.
Few people know anything about the found
ing Of this department. 1t was established in
May, 1852, when the country was in the midst
of the civil war. Before the organization of
the department the agricultural interests OF
the country were looked after to a more OIL less
limited degree by the patent office, and, though
this looking after was very Unsystematic, 1t did
great deal Of good and showed plainly the
possibilities Of q department devoted to the
industry in which AZ per cent OF the popula-
ton are engaged. The good done by the rather
insignificant bureau while under the domain OF
the patent Office recognized by the farm
ing population, and through their representa-
tiyes they worked hard for it's extension into
date, as is the case at present the distribution
taken by the department, and the effect on the
agricultural interests of the country has been
productive of great good.
THE DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY,
~ set forth in the act of Congress establishing
the department and the subsequent, acts are
manifold. and they keep Secretary Rusk, or
"Uncle jerry" as he is called with affectionate
familiarity. buster than he ever was farmer
in Wisconsin. In a few words he is to acquire
and preserve all information concerning agri-
culture which can be obtained by means Of
agents, correspondence and by practical and
scientific experiments, by the collection OF
statistics and new and valuable seeds and
plants, TO test them by propagation and distriG
ute among the farmers of the country such az
in the opinion of experts will be of use. To dc
this requires somewhat over 400 clerks and tn
force has been systematically arranged in
divisions, so that now the big institution Is
working on q systematic basis