WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
121
incumber the mails, that is a matter for the contractors; and they would not agree to abate anything if that branch of agri- culture were dispensed with. The contracts for transporting the mail would be as great then as now, I have no doubt; so that, on that ground, there would be no saving. My honorable friend from Missouri says he ruined a man's crop; and, therefore, the seeds ought not to be distributed, and ought not to be collected, no matter how useful they may generally be. He gives a particular instance in which some man, not under- standing the character of the seed he received, or the culture of the plant, or the value of it when produced, thought he was ruined. No doubt, if that man had known how to take care of that tobacco, how to cultivate it, he might have made a fortune from it. There are some persons in eastern Texas I know that have this year shipped vast quantities of tobacco, and, doubtless, will sell it at two dollars a pound. It is the Cuba tobacco; and, I presume, that is a description not suited to the climate and lati- tude of Missouri-it being a cold, northern climate; and the dis- tribution of Cuba tobacco seed was a failure in that section of country; but I have no doubt it succeeded in fifty instances where the climate was adapted to it. A man who reasons on the sub- ject, knows that all descriptions of plants are not suited to every variety of climate. That man ascertained by that experiment that the description of seed he had received was not suited to the climate of Missouri ; but that does not prove that it was not suited to a southern climate. My opinion is, that we-cannot expend this amount of money to greater advantage for the community at large in any other way we can invest it. At one time there was an attempt made here to put down the Patent Office report. Why, sir, not a day tran- spires that I do not get applications not only from the State which I represent, but from different parts of the Union, for Patent Office reports, the agricultural part and the mechanical part. In different sections of the country I find the people are anxious for their distribution, so that I really think these two branches of expenditure are the most useful that are made in the country. For that reason, I shall vote against striking out this appropria- tion, believing as I do that the distribution of seeds and cuttings and yams and various other things that are disseminated through the southern country, is the most beneficial use that can be made of the same amount of money, and the community are more largely benefited by it than by any other expenditure of the Gov- ernment. I shall therefore vote against striking it out.
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