Hierochloa borealis, R. & S.-Kotzebue. H. alpina, R. & S.-Kotzebue. Trisetum subspicatum, Trin.-Kotzebue A. arctica, Trin.-Sitka, Unalaska. A. atropurpurea, Scheele.Sitka, Unalaska. C. strigosa, Walil.-Sitka. C. Laponnica, Trin.-Unalaska. C. neglecta, Gaert.-Kotzebue Sound. C. Canadensis, Beauv.-Kotzebue Sound. Agrostis æquivalvis, Trin.-Sitka. A. geminata, Trin.-Unalaska. A. laxiflora, R. Br.-Unalaska. Phleum pratense, L.-Sitka, Fort Simpson. P. alpinum, L.-Kotzebue, Sitka. Alopecurus alpinus, Trin.-Kotzebue. Other species will no doubt be added to this list upon more careful and extensive exploration. Hon. HORACE CAPRON, Commissioner. WILLIAM H. DALL. REPORT OF THE EDITOR. SIR: The abandonment of the long-continued usage of admitting voluminous and desultory essays into the annual report of the Department, which was contemplated and in part accomplished in the volume for 1867, is made complete in the present issue. It was difficult to recognize the propriety of competing with private publishers in the presentation of exhaustive treatises upon special topics, written by private individuals, and in no sense official, however valuable or complete the information presented. While the domain of book-making and newspaper enterprise was invaded, the matter itself was not always of the kind contemplated by the organic act requiring reports upon agricultural progress and investigation. The essay was the work of a single mind, covering a limited field of observation, and prepared with the aid of private resources only. It was not a statement of results of Department labor and investigation. It was not legitimately an official report. It is believed that the present system will command the approbation and appreciation of intelligent agriculturists. The annual report of the Department of Agriculture will consist of the reports of the Commissioner and of division officers and special agents of the Department, including, under the report of the editor of the annual, digests of the researches of the office, upon special and timely topics, demanded by the exigencies of the hour, and illustrative of the direction of rural effort and of the progress of the time. Such investigations may be made with the aid of a large corps of regular and special correspondents, of the State and local societies representing agriculture and horticulture, and of the diplomatic representatives of this country abroad, (who are extremely courteous in forwarding voluntary information and in responding to special inquiries,) as well as of experts in any line of research desired, who may be employed to compile and enlarge the matter in possession of the Department. Thus the work may not be deprived of the skill of individuals learned in some specialty, while its unity and consistency are not marred by views from many standpoints and irreconcilable differences in statements of fact and of opinion. In this connection it is proper to state that the statistics of this office upon Roads and Road Laws were digested and the subject reviewed, as presented in these pages, by John Wilkinson, of Baltimore, landscape gardener and civil engineer. To Dr. Lee, of Tennessee, the Department is indebted for information presented in Concentrated Fertilizers in the southern States; to Thomas S. Pleasants, of Virginia, for matter concerning the Mineral Resources of Virginia; to W. S. Clark, president of the Massachusetts College, for the history of that institution; to G. S. Wagner, of the Bee Journal, for analysis of Department statistics, upon bee-keeping; and to John S. Hittell, of California, for the matter relating to silk culture in that State. The Department is also indebted to thousands of regular and volunteer correspondents, who labor without reward for the advancement of their favorite calling, and whose records of experience and statements of fact are embodied in the matter presented in the following pages, as compiled by the editor of this volume and his assistants. Hon. HORACE CAPRON, Commissioner. J. R. DODGE. DEPARTMENT BUILDING AND GROUNDS. The new building of the Department of Agriculture is one hundred and seventy feet long by sixty-one feet deep, and consists of a finished basement, three full stories, and Mansard roof. Designed in the renaissance style of architecture, the front presents a center building with main entrance, flanked by two projecting wings. The material is pressed brick, with brownstone base, belts, trimmings, and cornices. Walking over a flight of swelled granite steps, the visitor passes through the main door, of oak and ash wood, into an octagonal vestibule of twenty feet square and sixteen feet high, the floor of which is laid with rosettes and borders of encaustic tiles, and the sides paneled in encaustic paint. The ceiling is decorated with fresco work, around a center, representing an arbor of vine foliage, and held by American eagles with spread wings; arabesque ornaments are sprung with four medallions illustrating in turn, by landscape, light effect, and human figures, spring, morning, and childhood; summer, noon, and youth; autumn, evening, and mature age; winter, night, and old age. Around a wide corridor, similarly finished, but in plain style, are grouped office rooms of twenty by twenty feet in size. The reception room is chastely decorated, while the chief clerk's room is finished with an apparently solid molded and paneled wainscot in curly walnut, mahogany, and maple, covering the height of side walls, surmounted by frescoed stucco cornice and a ceiling in complementary colors. This wainscot is a specimen of the "American wood-hanging," which is an application of wood to the plastered walls. The wood is prepared in strips of different lengths, of about the thickness of paper, and is placed upon the walls by paper-hangers. The adjoining oflice of the Commissioner is done in the same material, but in a higher style of the art, the panels of rich bird's-eye maple being bordered by friezes of mahog any and blistered walnut, alternating with fancy paneled pilasters in mahogany and satin wood, all parted by curly maple and set off by gilt edges. This series of rooms is completed by the private office of the Commissioner, finished in plain library style, with friezes of birch, borders of black walnut, and panels of mountain ash. The rooms for clerical purposes are finished in plain encaustic oil paint, with frescoed ceilings-all in different colors. The western end of this story is occupied by the library, which is furnished with mahogany cases; and a suite of rooms on the eastern terminus is devoted to laboratory purposes, where all cumbersome apparatus is dispensed with; and an ample supply of gas furnishes the modern heating power. A double flight of fire-proof stairs, of wrought and cast iron, in the center of the building, and opposite the vestibule, lit by a grand window glazed with stained glass, leads to the second story, the main or central part of which is appropriated to the Museum of Agricul ture, a hall one hundred and two feet in length, fifty-two feet in width, and twenty-seven feet high. There are three large entrance doors, of six by twelve feet, of artistic design. The size and style of the ten windows, each seven by sixteen feet, partake of the character of the modern exhibition palaces. The hall is crowned by a bold coved stucco cornice, the lines of which are broken rhythmically by heavy brackets, in the sculpture of which colossal Indian busts form prominent feat |