IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, March 2, 1867. Resolved, That there be printed for the use of the Senate twenty thousand additional copies of the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the year 1866, and the accompanying documents; and three thousand additional copies of the same for the use of the Department of Agriculture. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, February 28, 1867. On motion of Mr. LAFLIN, from the Committee on Printing, Resolved, That there be printed of the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the year 1866 one hundred and sixty-five thousand extra copies, viz: one hundred and forty-five thousand copies for the members of this House, and twenty thousand for the Commissioner of Agriculture. (Printed on the fast Bullock Perfecting Press.) CONTENTS. Page. Popular varieties of hardy fruit, by F. R. Elliott ..... Fruit regions of the northern United States and their local climates, by James S. Lip- Cotton-planting, by Joseph B. Lyman... Aids to cattle-feeding, by L. S. Abbott.. Indian corn culture, by J. F. Wolfinget. California products................ Improved farm implements, by S. Edwards Todd.. The origin of the domestic turkey, by Spencer F. Baird.. The "Cream-pot" stock, by William H. Slingerland........ The Jaques "Cream-pot" stock, by J. R. Dodge.... Pisciculture, with reference to American waters, by Theodore Gill, M. D................... Marine plants and their uses, with a brief account of the curing of Irish moss, by G. Cultivation of the cinchona in the United States, by Thomas Antisell, M. D.... Ship-timber in the United States, by William W. Bates.... History of the agriculture of the United States, by Ben: Perley Poore ILLUSTRATIONS. No. 1.-Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 2.-Tetofsky, (apple.) 3.-Myers's Nonpareil, (apple.) 5.-Doyenne d'Alençon, (pear.) 6.-Howell, (pear.) 7.-Dana's Hovey, (pear.) 8.-Governor Wood, (cherry.) 9.-Knight's Early Black, (cherry.) 10.-Downing's Ever-bearing Mulberry. 11.-Red Antwerp and Philadelphia, (raspberries.) 12.-Kirtland, (raspberry.) 13.-Naomi, (raspberry.) 14.-Orange, (raspberry.) 15.-Doolittle Black Cap, (raspberry.) 16.-Cream-pot cow, owned by William H. Slingerland, Albany, New York. 17.-Cream-pot cow, owned by P. W. Jones, Amherst, New Hampshire. 18.-Short-horn bull. 19.-Short-horn cow. 20.-Short-horn ox. 21.-Short-horn bull Third Duke of Geneva, bred by James O. Sheldon, Geneva, New York. 22.-Short-horn cow Gem of Oxford, bred by James O. Sheldon, Geneva, New York. 23.-Norman horse French Napoleon, bred by William McFarlan, Downington, Chester county, Pennsylvania. 24.-Improved Kentucky sheep, bred by Robert W. Scott, Frankfort, Kentucky. 25.-Improved Kentucky sheep, bred by Robert W. Scott, Frankfort, Kentucky. 26.-Cotswold ram Golden Fleece, owned by John D. Wing, Maple Shade, Dutchess county, New York. 27.-Infantado ram General Sheridan, bred by E. W. Rogers & Sons, Whallonsburg, New York. 28.-Infantado and Paular yearling ewes, bred by E. W. Rogers & Sons, Whallonsburg, New York. 29.-Merino ram Ontario, owned by Hon. E. B. Pottle and John Maltman, Ontario county, New York. 30.-Merino ewe Tegs, bred by F. B. Sawyer, Webster, New Hampshire. 31.-Pisciculture-Hatching boxes, etc. 32.-Pisciculture-Hatching boxes. 33.-Pisciculture-Artificial spawning bed. 34.-Pisciculture-Fishes. 35.-Pisciculture-Fishes. 36.--Sugar-making in Louisiana in 1751. REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Washington, D. C., November 20, 1866. SIR: I have the honor to submit, and take pleasure in presenting, this my fifth annual report of the operations of the department under my charge, hoping it will meet your approval, and that of enlightened agriculturists generally. And though the past year has been one of great care and labor, attendant on the continued transition of the nation from a state of war to one of peace-a year during which immense armies have been undergoing transformation into civic and domestic forces, and four millions of slaves have assumed their new and untried relations as free men-a year, therefore, involving disturbances inseparable from all such great changes-yet, thanks to the Divine overruling wisdom and goodness, and the judicious administration of those in charge of these changes, fewer difficulties and less extensive evils have been experienced than would have occurred in any other nation or under any other form of government. Our people, self-educated and self-governed, and accustomed to exercise their intelligence and freedom under written forms of law, have proved themselves capable not only of enduring the severest trials of a gigantic civil war, but also of passing peacefully and quietly through the most demoralizing changes which a transition from such a war to a state of peace could precipitate upon us. Some of these changes have been more wonderful than the suppression of the rebellion itself. But the changes which I fervently believe are yet to follow will probably be more wonderful, though less sudden and immediately apparent, and far more beneficent, because involving no destruction of interests, no sudden transitions, or sufferings, in classes or individuals. Already favored by propitious Providence in giving us genial seasons, our farmers are laying widely and deeply the firm foundations of a new and increasing national prosperity. And as their peaceful conquests are extended the scars of earth made by devastating war will be effaced, and the heavy burden of debt which it piled upon the shoulders of our people will be gradually lightened, and finally and surely lifted. The agricultural condition of the northern States was never more flourishing. High prices, accessible markets, and crops of average abundance have insured good profits; and, as a result, mortgages have been paid, farm buildings erected, permanent improvements accomplished, farm implements and machinery obtained, and, in thousands of instances, a surplus invested in government funds. Now that agricultural restoration has commenced in States lately in rebellion, and efforts tending to amelioration and accumulation have already begun to pro duce their fruits, and to dispel the despondency which last year brooded over the industry of that region, it is sincerely hoped that improvement and progress will steadily mark the course of southern agriculture and secure a prosperity unequalled in the past, and unsurpassed by that of any other States of the American Union. In the reorganization of industry in these States it is believed that the great mistake of the past, the concentration of labor mainly upon a single branch of a single grand division of productive industry, will be avoided. This mistake has cost that section one-half the wealth it might have attained, and may have led to the sacrifice in war of a portion of the remainder. Excessive increase of a single product, tending to over-supply and reduction of price, and attended with heavy expenses for outward freights, and the purchase of all farm and family supplies burdened with cost of carriage and a long line of consuming commissions, points unerringly the way to national poverty and individual bankruptcy. A proper equilibrium of the products of industry, saving untold burdens of freightage, excessive profits and extortions of middle-men, insurance, breakage, and manifold losses, prevents reduction of prices from burdened markets, lightens damages from failures of single products, gives employment to all classes, conditions, and capacities of labor, insures remunerating wages for the workmen, renders possible necessary rotations and the production of farm manures, and increases the wealth, intelligence, and power of a State. In political economy the smaller products of a diversified industry are far more than an equivalent for a single result of organized labor, however absorbing or important. The cotton crop, for example, of the empire State of the South, in 1860, was 701,S40 bales, yielding little more than $30,000,000, while the butter of New York in 1865, one of several products of the dairy, was estimated at $60,000,000; and yet the census gives to New York but 370,914 farmers and farm laborers, and to Georgia including white farmers and farm laborers, and only the males of the slaves, 316,478 persons engaged in agriculture. Besides the other dairy products, milk, cream, and cheese, and the multitude of smaller products of the farm, the principal crops make an astounding aggregate—as in 1864, when the corn crop of New York was estimated at $38,000,000, the wheat at $25,000,000, the oats at $33,000,000, potatoes at $19,000,000, and hay at $90,000,000. Including the minor cereals, products of orchards and gardens, the production of beef and mutton from pasturage, and a great variety of miscellaneous and exceptional products, the currency value of the agricultural productions of this one State in that year was far greater than the money returns of any cotton crop ever produced in the country, and the gold value of such products would be more than equivalent to the gold value of half the cotton crop of 1860. It is evident that the diversification of farm industry, which secures these results in one location, must be applied to reorganized southern agriculture, with modifications such as climate and soil may indicate; and while cotton, as is hoped and Delieved, will ever be a prominent crop, and a sure reliance for immediate cash returns, it will never again overshadow and dwarf other interests essential to permanent success in agriculture. And it is also equally apparent that a portion. |