the forests is not
sufficiently guarded against should be speedily modified. A general
law concerning this important subject appears to me to be a matter of
urgent public necessity.

From the organization of the Government the importance of encouraging
by all possible means the increase of our agricultural productions
has been acknowledged and urged upon the attention of Congress and the
people as the surest and readiest means of increasing our substantial
and enduring prosperity.

The words of Washington are as applicable to-day as when, in his
eighth annual message, he said:

It will not be doubted that, with reference either to
individual or national welfare, agriculture is of primary
importance. In proportion as nations advance in population
and other circumstances of maturity this truth becomes more
apparent, and renders the cultivation of the soil more and
more an object of public patronage. Institutions for promoting
it grow up, supported by the public purse; and to what object
can it be dedicated with greater propriety? Among the means
which have been employed to this end none have been attended
with greater success than the establishment of boards
(composed of proper characters) charged with collecting and
diffusing information, and enabled by premiums and small
pecuniary aids to encourage and assist a spirit of discovery
and improvement. This species of establishment contributes
doubly to the increase of improvement, by stimulating to
enterprise and experiment, and by drawing to a common center
the results everywhere of individual skill and observation
and spreading them thence over the whole nation. Experience
accordingly hath shewn that they are very cheap instruments of
immense national benefits.

The preponderance of the agricultural over any other interest in the
United States entitles it to all the consideration claimed for it by
Washington. About one-half of the population of the United States is
engaged in agriculture. The value of the agricultural products of the
United States for the year 1878 is estimated at $3,000,000,000. The
exports of agricultural products for the year 1877, as appears from
the report of the Bureau of Statistics, were $524,000,000. The great
extent of our country, with its diversity of soil and climate, enables
us to produce within our own borders and by our own labor not only the
necessaries, but most of the luxuries, that are c