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first in the generous and magnanimous help you afforded me in my cadidacy in Kanas, and for the other offices of kindness on sundry other occasions done and said. And now I prize these words of sympathy and condolences before me. The days of our association have – ourw alks to and from Col. – our debates – our mutual counsels – our incitements to new fields of inquiry – our evening parties – our readings – our trials mutually shared – on all these things I shall reflect as among the happies reminiscences of
my life. The last four years here, turbulent years, years of constant change and estrangement have made a prison for us, and I am happy that they are ended. The Col. will now be what it was. Its life and glory, and I fear its prospects, are all gone. This new Pres,. has none of those traits which command the admiration and enthusiasm of young people, and will almost certainly fail as an execution. But enough of this. Nothing as yet has openend out for me. I have moved into the town of AMes and will spend the winter [?] here. If you should
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hear of any opening to which you would regard me adapted I know you will be prompt to help me, and I will be under a still greater [right?] of indebtedness to you.
I send you a copy of my yearly pamphlet — this time it is the subject of B[?] which I want to resettle on its eternal formulations where Plato left it, as against the [?] [?] of contemporary literature and [?]. Glance at it and pass it around. My wife joins in warmest regards to yourself and wife and the little ones.
Fraternally W. H. Wynn
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1887
50th Congress, 1st Session.
House of Representatives.
Report No. 13.
Agricultural Experiment Stations.
January 13, 1888.—Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.
Mr. Hatch, from the Committe on Agriculture, submitted the following
Report (To accompany bill H. R. 4881.)
The Committee on Agriculture, having in charge the bill (H. R. 4881) making an appropriation to carry into effect the provisions of an act approved March 2, 1887, entitled "An act to establish agricultural experiment stations, in connection with the colleges established in the several States, under the provisions of an act approved July 2, 1862, and of the acts supplementary thereto," most respectfully report, having had the same under consideration, that the act under which this appropriation is asked has been construed by the First Comptroller of the Treasury as not making the appropriations for the current fiscal year evidently intended thereby.
A special act of appropriation is therefore necessary to make operative and effective the said act of March 2, 1887.
Accordingly, the Secretary of the Treasury, in a communication to the House of Representatives, dated December 22, 1887, relating to urgent deficiencies (H.R. Ex. Doc. No. 30, p. 7) makes an estimate for this purpose, as follows:
Agricultueral Experiment Stations: To carry into effect the provisions of an act approved March 2, 1887, entitled "An act to establish agricultural experiment stations in conflection with the colleges established in the several States under the provisions of an act approved July 2, 1862, and of the acts supplementary thereto," $585,000.
This communication is accompanied with copies of letters as follows (Ex. Doc. No. 30, p. 19):
[Estimates for urgent deficiencies.]
Appendix D.—In relation to the estimate for "agricultural experiment stations." (See page 7.)
Treasury Department, First Comptroller's Office, Washington, D. C., December 3, 1887.
SIR: You may remember that there was some trouble about what was supposed to be an appropriation made by the last Congress for agricultural experiment stations in the act of March 2, 1887. (See 24 Stat., 440.) It was contended by some that section 5 of said act made an appropriation of $15,000 a year to each one of said stations; but when the question was presented to me I decided that the act itself did not make an appropriation; that the fifth section only provided that Congress should, in the manner and to the amount therein specified, make appropriations from year to year. You may also remember that the agricultural convention, which met in this city in the month of September, waited upon you as well as myself, to confer as to the best method of effecting the purpose intended by the set; that said experiment stations were represented to have been established in many of the States, and that they were in need of money to meet obligations incurred under the belief that the act had made an appropriation. You will observe, also, that, under said fifth section, the first payment was stipulated to be made
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2 Agricultural Experiment Stations.
on the 1st of October; and in view of the fact that nine months of the present fiscal year are not provided for in any of the appropriation bills, I beg to suggest to you the propriety of calling the especial attention of Congress to the matter, in order that at an early day it may make an appropriation for said nine months in a special bill, or by appending the same to a deficiency bill, which will, in all probability, be passed very early in the session.
I am led to make these suggestions to you from the fact that within the last few days I have received a letter from the chairman of the committee appointed by the late agricultural convention to look after this matter, asking me to call your attention to the subject, that an appropriation may be obtained from Congress at the earliest practicable moment.
Very respectfully, M J. Durham, The Secretary of the Treasury, Comptroller.
State College, Centre County, Pa., December 8, 1887. Sir: In reply to your verbal inquiry as to the number of States and Territories in which agricultural colleges or experiment stations have been so organized as to entitle them to the appropriation provided for by the act of Congress approved March 2, 1887, commonly known as the "Hatch Act," I beg leave respectfully to say that at least one such college or station has been established and is in operation in each of the thirty eight States, and in the Territory of Dakota.
It is possible that one or more of the Territories besides Dakota may have established such institutions; but no information of such a fact has come to the notices of the Association of Agricultureal Colleges and Experiment Stations, and I have no reason to suppose it to exist.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant. Geo. W. Atherton. The Secretary of the Treasury.
The sum named in the bill now reported, viz, $585,000, is thus in accordance with the estimate of the Treasury Department, and is to enable the payments to be made for the four quarters of the year ending June 30, 1888, as provided by the said act of March 2, 1887, and early consideration of this measure is asked, for the following reasons:
The act of March 2, 1887, providing for the establishment and maintenance of at least one agricultural experiment station in every State was hailed throughout the country as opening a new era in the development and progress of American agriculture. Everywhere the act was regarded as immediately operative and carrying with it the necessary appropriation for the new work to begin on the 1st day of July, 1887. Institutions in various States, thus interpreting the law, made suitable arrangements, providing buildings, purchasing equipment and materials, and engaging the services of competent men. Agricultural students and investigators resigned lucrative positions to engage in the work of the new stations. Thus every preparation was making for active operations to begin as contemplated by the law, when the decision of the oficers of the Treasury Department caused a general suspension, with much embarrassment, more or less absolute loss, and wide-spread disappointment.
In several States trustees of these colleges are prohibited by law from in curring and indebtedness, and the great work provided by the said act of March 2, 1887, stands in abeyance until a special appropriation for the same is made. In agricultural experiment time is of the utmost importance, and the whole growing season of the year 1888 will be lost to the work in some of the States, unless action be taken by Congress before the end of the month of January.
The subject is, therefore, one of especial urgency and the public interests require its immediate consideration.
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In sending specimens of plants for investigation it is desirable to have th eleaves, flowers, and fruit; and, in the case of bulbous plants, the bulbs, also. When they are sent from a distance it is best to prepare the specimens by drying them under pressure between folds of absorbent paper, otherwise the parts shrink and break so as to be hardly recognizable. When the dried plants are sent they should be protected from breakage in the mail by being inclosed between pieces of stiff pasteboard. Packages weighing less than four pounds can be sent by mail at the rate of one cent per ounce. Write the name of the sender on the outside. In the letter accompanying the specimens state where collected, the date, and any other particulars of the plant, whether reputed poisonous, pestiferous, medicinal, or useful.
U. S. Department of Agriculture. Division of Botany, Washington, D. C., April, 14th. 1887.
Dr. C. E. Bessey Lincoln, Neb.
Dear Sir:
The Department is collecting evidence on the reliability of the rings of growth in determining the ages of trees.
Will you kindly furnish any observations you may have made on the subject, and also if convenient report any further observations yo umay make.
If you have any trees, whose age is known, which can be sacrificed for this purpose, we should be glad to receive transverse sections of such, about three inches in thickness which may be sent at the expense of the Department. It is desirable to have stated the height at which the section is taken. If possible it should be low enough to include the growth made the first year from seed.
Respectfully, Norman Colman. Commissioner.