. The story of agriculture in the United States. James Wilson Secretary of Agriculture,1897-1913. THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 305 breeding of silkworms in Virginia. Parliament placed abounty on indigo to advance its culture. Most, if notall, of the colonies helped some branch of agriculturalwork: in Massachusetts, stock raising; in Georgia, theculture of mulberry trees; in Virginia, silk productionand hop raising. We have seen that when a Board ofAgriculture was estabhshed in England, President Wash-ington recommended that Congress provide for a similarboard in this country. Nothing, however
. The story of agriculture in the United States. James Wilson Secretary of Agriculture,1897-1913. THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 305 breeding of silkworms in Virginia. Parliament placed abounty on indigo to advance its culture. Most, if notall, of the colonies helped some branch of agriculturalwork: in Massachusetts, stock raising; in Georgia, theculture of mulberry trees; in Virginia, silk productionand hop raising. We have seen that when a Board ofAgriculture was estabhshed in England, President Wash-ington recommended that Congress provide for a similarboard in this country. Nothing, however, was done by. Department of Agriculture, the general government to encourage agriculture formany years after Washingtons time. In 1836, Henry L. Ellsworth, Commissioner of Patents,began asking the various United States consuls, who arestationed in foreign countries caring for the interests ofour citizens, to send home the seeds of valuable plantsthat were native in those countries. These he distributedto friends. Besides doing this work, the Patent Officecollected valuable information upon agricultural topics;this was printed and the reports were distributed by thegovernment. In 1839 Congress appropriated $1,000 forthe collection and distribution of seeds. 3o6 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES By the year 1862 it apppeared to some persons that suchwork was important enough to require a separate office;so the Department of Agriculture was created, and theHonorable Isaac Newton was made the first Commis-sioner. It was the duty of the Department to gatherinformation upon agriculture, to pub
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
