ders of cattle.
The Indians and buffaloes have disappeared and the "cowboys" and
domestic cattle and horses have taken their place, to give way, no
doubt, in time, to the farmer, when the water will be drawn from
the earth by artesian wells, and life and vitality will thus be
given to a soil as rich as the Kansas valley.

We reached the end of our stage ride at Fort Riley, and were glad
to enter into the cars of the Kansas Pacific railroad, though they
were as dirty and filthy as cars could well be. All this has been
changed. Now the ride over the plains from Kansas City to Denver
can be made, in a comparatively few hours, in comfort and safety.

I returned to Ohio to take my usual part in the canvass in the fall
of 1866, and returned to Washington in time for the meeting of
Congress on the first Monday in December.

Prior to 1862 but little attention was given by Congress to the
greatest and most important industry of mankind, that of agriculture.
This is especially true of the United States, where the majority
of its inhabitants are engaged in farming. Agriculture has furnished
the great body of our exports, yet this employment had no representative
in any of the departments except a clerk in the Patent Office.
The privileges granted by that bureau to inventors had no relation
to work on the farm, though farming was greatly aided by invention
of farm implements during the period of the war, when a million of
men were drawn from their occupations into the army. This anomaly
led to the passage, on the 15th of May, 1862, of the act to establish
the department of agriculture. Though called a department its
chief officer was a commissioner of agriculture, who was not for
many years a member of the cabinet. The first commissioner, Isaac
Newton, appointed by Lincoln, was a peculiar character, a Quaker
of Philadelphia, a gardener rather than a farmer, but he was an
earnest and active officer. The appropriations for his department
were very small, but enabled him to distribute valuable seeds and
cuttings, which were in great demand and of real service to farmers.
I early took an active part in promoting his efforts and especially
in producing him appropriations and land where he could test his
experiments. He applied for authority to use that portion of
Reservation No. 2 between 12th and 14th streets of the mall in
Washington, then an unsightly waste without tree or shrub, but he
was notified that the use of it was