Mr. MORRILL. Mr. Chairman, I have heretofore struggled to make some reformation in that Dept, but our friends are so fond of the “stistics” and “anilysas” of the dept that I have never been able to succeed. We have here an appropriation of $38,000 for employees without any specification and left entirely to the disposal of the chief of Dept. When this Dept was 1st established that sum was, I believe, about the amount of the whole cost of its annual maintenance. As the Gentfrom Illinois has stated, all we allowed last year was $60,000 much more than was necessary if economically expended. All of the items as this year proposed in this appropriation amount to $162,000 every year increasing, as will be seen, and more than 3 times what it cost only a few years ago. And beyond this the Commissioner is allowed to go to the public Printing Office and have published a monthly or semi monthly document costing the Government, as I am informed, an amount equal to this whole appropriation. Some of the articles published in this governmental periodical may be of some value, but they might much better be included in the annual report. It strikes me we should at this time pay some attention to the expenditures made in this as well as in other Depts. And what is the character of the seeds we receive? 7 8ths are precisely such as you can go to any agricultural seed store and buy. I will do the justice to say that even the old names of 30 years ago have not been changed. It is nothing more than a bonus to those people who see fit to write to the Dept or call upon it for their regular annual supply of common garden seeds. Look at the way in which these seeds are expended, saying nothing of the equally extravagant manner in which they are purchased. 1/2 at least are given to those who call either in person or by letter upon the Dept for their supplies. For those who happen to live near by it is just the thing to call and select their annual supply of seeds without paying for them, while those who live at remote distances are compelled to forego such privileges. It seems to me equally unfair that persons living near by or remote from the capital shall be allowed annually to address a letter to the Dept for parcels of seed, thus sponging them out of the Government instead of paying for them at the agricultural seed stores. These are little matters but they constitute a large item in the expenditures of the Dept. And I speak from knowledge that the quality of these seeds is inferior to what they were some years ago. Then we had the best kind selected from the old varieties, and some of a new and rare sort. Now we have the commonest varieties and sometimes the poorest distributed in small parcels, a large share of which are useless when received because not suited to the climate. I do not wish to jo. this Dept. I wish to reform it and make it worthy of the Government; and now everybody knows that it is discreditable.