over $25,000,000. Of beef products of all kinds our total exports were
$28,000,000, of which Great Britain took $24,000,000. Of pork products
the total exports were $84,000,000, of which Great Britain took
$53,000,000. In breadstuffs, cotton, and minor products like proportions
sent to the same destination are shown.

The work of the statistical division of the Department of Agriculture
deals with all that relates to the economics of farming.

The main purpose of its monthly reports is to keep the farmers informed
as fully as possible of all matters having any influence upon the
world's markets, in which their products find sale. Its publications
relate especially to the commercial side of farming.

It is therefore of profound importance and vital concern to the farmers
of the United States, who represent nearly one-half of our population,
and also of direct interest to the whole country, that the work of this
division be efficiently performed and that the information it has
gathered be promptly diffused.

It is a matter for congratulation to know that the Secretary will not
spare any effort to make this part of his work thoroughly useful.

In the year 1839 the Congress appropriated $1,000, to be taken from the
Patent Office funds, for the purpose of collecting and distributing
rare and improved varieties of seeds and for prosecuting agricultural
investigations and procuring agricultural statistics. From this small
beginning the seed division of the Department of Agriculture has grown
to its present unwieldy and unjustifiably extravagant proportions.