entire country,
and that the necessary appropriation be made for this purpose. This
would be particularly beneficial to the iron, coal, and other mining
interests of the Mississippi Valley and of the Eastern and Southern
States. The subject is commended to the careful consideration of
Congress.

The Secretary of the Interior asks attention to the want of room in
the public buildings of the capital, now existing and in progress of
construction, for the accommodation of the clerical force employed and
of the public records. Necessity has compelled the renting of private
buildings in different parts of the city for the location of public
offices, for which a large amount of rent is annually paid, while the
separation of offices belonging to the same Department impedes the
transaction of current business. The Secretary suggests that the
blocks surrounding Lafayette Square on the east, north, and west be
purchased as the sites for new edifices for the accommodation of the
Government offices, leaving the square itself intact, and that if such
buildings were constructed upon a harmonious plan of architecture
they would add much to the beauty of the national capital, and would,
together with the Treasury and the new State, Navy, and War Department
building, form one of the most imposing groups of public edifices in
the world.

The Commissioner of Agriculture expresses the confident belief that
his efforts in behalf of the production of our own sugar and tea have
been encouragingly rewarded. The importance of the results attained
have attracted marked attention at home and have received the special
consideration of foreign nations. The successful cultivation of our
own tea and the manufacture of our own sugar would make a difference
of many millions of dollars annually in the wealth of the nation.

The report of the Commissioner asks attention particularly to the
continued prevalence of an infectious and contagious cattle
disease known and dreaded in Europe and Asia as cattle plague, or
pleuro-pneumonia. A mild type of this disease in certain sections
of our country is the occasion of great loss to our farmers and of
serious disturbance to our trade with Great Britain, which furnishes
a market for most of our live stock and dressed meats. The value of
neat cattle exported from the United States for the eight months ended
August 31, 1880, was more than $12,000,000, and nearly double the
value for the same period in 1879--an