Identifier: picturesquewas00moor (find matches)
Title: Picturesque Washington: pen and pencil sketches of its scenery, history, traditions, public and social life, with graphic descriptions of the Capitol and Congress, the White House, and the government departments ..
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Moore, Joseph West
Subjects: Washington (D.C.)
Publisher: Providence : J.A. & R.A. Reid
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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f reliable and judicious correspondents, who makesimultaneous report to the department on the first of each month, of thecondition of the crops, the results of local agricultural experiments,and other valuable facts. These reports are constantly verified byspecial agents, and the greatest pains taken to secure accuracy. Whenthe information is all at hand the statistician of the department com-piles it, and makes out the full monthly crop report, which is an-nounced through the newspapers and issued in pamphlet form. Thesereports have great practical value, especially to those pecuniarily in-terested in bread-stufts, cotton, and other staples. Thousands of letters are received requesting information in regardto the agricultural productions of the western states and the territories ;and information in regard to strange looking birds and insects, samplesof which are sent — whether or not they are destructive to crops.Peculiar kinds of grass and plants that have poisoned cattle are for-
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THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 230 PICTURESQUE WASHINGTON. warded, with inquiries about them ; and a thousand and one differentrequests for practical knowledge continually pour in. Each letter ispromptly answered, and the fullest information it has been possible toobtain is given. The annual report of the department has a circula-tion of 300,000 copies, mostly of course among the western farmers,who prize it highly. It is a bulky volume, with a vast amount of in-formation of importance to the agricultural interests, and is copiouslyillustrated with correct drawings of insects, and various other thingsappertaining to agriculture and horticulture, the illustrations costingin some years as much as $30,000. The department building is situated on the Mall, facing ThirteenthStreet, and is of tine pressed brick with brown-stone trimmings. It isof the renaissance order of architecture, and was erected in 1868, afterdesigns by Adolph Cluss, at a cost of $140,000. It has three storiesand a mans

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