Excerpt from Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture of the Operations of the Department: For the Year 1876

I regret to be obliged to say that the operations of this Department for the coming year, upon which we have entered, have been most severely crippled by the legislation of the last Congress. Our Statisti cal Division, which I look upon as the most important to the interests of the country, has been almost destroyed for want of an appropriation to supply it. The whole sum appropriated to this division is only which is not quite sufficient to pay for the clerical 'work, leav ing nothing for collecting agricultural statistics and compiling and writing matter for monthly, annual, and special reports. In couse quenco of which, and the want of a sufficient appropriation for printing, the monthly reports cannot be published longer than November, and the articles which make up the annual report cannot be procured at all, unless it be the pleasure of Congress to make a further appropriation.

The Department grounds are yearly becoming more and more a source of deep interest to students in forestry, a subject that is justly attract ing the attention of practical as well as scientific men. Comparisons can here be made in regard to the rapidity of growth of the various species, and their adaptability to various purposes and uses. The col lection of ligneous plants is constantly receiving additions, and is rapidly approaching completion, so far as known plants are concerned.

Efforts toward introducing the culture of the Chinese tea-plant are still in force, though the great reduction in the appropriation for the support of the garden during the year prevents any further effort in this line at present.

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