0,000,000, an increase of
$17,000,000 over those of the year immediately preceding. This statement
is not the less welcome because of the fact that, notwithstanding such
increase, the proportion of exported agricultural products to our total
exports of all descriptions fell off during the year. The benefits of
an increase in agricultural exports being assured, the decrease in its
proportion to our total exports is the more gratifying when we consider
that it is owing to the fact that such total exports for the year
increased more than $75,000,000.

The large and increasing exportation of our agricultural products
suggests the great usefulness of the organization lately established in
the Department for the purpose of giving to those engaged in farming
pursuits reliable information concerning the condition, needs, and
advantages of different foreign markets. Inasmuch as the success of the
farmer depends upon the advantageous sale of his products, and inasmuch
as foreign markets must largely be the destination of such products,
it is quite apparent that a knowledge of the conditions and wants that
affect those markets ought to result in sowing more intelligently and
reaping with a better promise of profit. Such information points out the
way to a prudent foresight in the selection and cultivation of crops and
to a release from the bondage of unreasoning monotony of production, a
glutted and depressed market, and constantly recurring unprofitable toil.

In my opinion the gratuitous distribution of seeds by the Department
as at present conducted ought to be discontinued. No one can read the
statement of the Secretary on this subject and doubt the extravagance
and questionable results of this practice. The professed friends of the
farmer, and certainly the farmers themselves, are naturally expected
to be willing to rid a Department devoted to the promotion of farming
interests of a feature which tends so much to its discredit.

The Weather Bureau, now attached to the Department of Agriculture, has
continued to extend its sphere of usefulness, and by an uninterrupted
improvement in the accuracy of its forecasts has greatly increased its
efficiency as an aid and protection to all whose occupations are related
to weather conditions.

Omitting further reference to the operations of the Department, I
commend the Secretary's report and the suggestions it contains to the
careful consideration of the Congress.

The progress mad