ceived; writing and recording letters sent; distribution of letters, documents, and manuscripts to the other divisions; to the keeping of the records of the expenditures of the office; the direction, wrapping, and sending to the post all documents distributed of which a record is kept, and to other business of a miscellaneous character.

II. THE DIVISION OF STATISTICS.

1374. This division is under the charge of the Statistician. It is charged with the keeping of full lists of all institutions of learning, of every grade, from which statistics are annually gathered, and of the recording, on the statistical tables, of the information received.

III. THE DIVISION OF TRANSLATION.

1375. This division is in the charge of a translator, whose duties are to write all letters to foreign correspondents; to translate into English, from other languages, all written or printed material required; to read all foreign educational journals and reports for the use of the Commissioner or the other divisions of the office, and to keep in order the foreign books, &c., in the library.

IV. THE DIVISION OF ABSTRACTS.

1376. This division has charge of the preparation of that portion of the office report which gives annually a concise résumé derived from printed State and city school reports, catalogues, &c., of the condition and progress of public and private instruction in this country; and it has charge likewise of the preparation of all letters which cannot be conveniently written in the other divisions.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR OF RAILROAD ACCOUNTS.

1377. This office was created as a bureau of the Interior Department by act of June 19, 1878. (Stats. 20, p. 169.)

The duties of the Auditor, under direction of the Secretary of the Interior, are to prescribe a system of reports to be rendered to him by the railroad companies whose roads are in whole or in part west, north, or south of the Missouri River, and to which the United States has granted any loan of credit or subsidy in bonds or lands; to examine the books and accounts of each of said railroad companies once in each fiscal year, and at such other times as may be deemed by him necessary to determine the correctness of any report received from them; to assist the Government directors of any of said companies in all mat. ters coming under their cognizance whenever they may officially request such assistance; to see that the laws relating to those companies are enforced; to furnish such information to the several departments of the Government, in regard to tariffs for freight and passengers and in regard to the accounts of said companies, as may be by them required, or, in the absence of a request therefor, as he may deem expedient for the interests of the Government; and to make an annual report to the Secretary of the Inte rior, on the 1st day of November, on the condition of each of said railroad companies, their road, accounts, and affairs for the fiscal year ending June 30 preceding.

In this office there are one book-keeper, one assistant book-keeper, one clerk, and one copyist to assist the Auditor in the performance of his duties.

The first official report of the head of this bureau enumerates forty-six companies embraced by the act of Congress as having received from the Government bonds, lands, material, or aid of some sort in the construction of their roads.

The records of the bureau, based upon the reports which these companies are required by law to make, and drawn from other sources, present a mass of information, in a convenient and reliable shape, of great interest and value not only to officers of the Government, but to the people generally. The compilations made therefrom embrace statements of the financial condition of the companies respectively; of their revenue, ownership, and control; the nature and extent of their business; their operating and other expenses, and the cost of construction; together with various statistics, covering specified periods, as to employees, their number and pay, supplies, repairs, taxes, funded debt, capital stock, freight earned, bridges, rollingstock, stocks of other corporations and bonds owned by the companies, characteristics of the road-bed, quantity of land acquired and disposed of, receipts and expenditures of land department, &c.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

1378. The act of May 15, 1862, created a Department of Agriculture, and assigned it to the charge of an officer designated as Commissioner of Agriculture. The design of such department, as expressed in the act, is to acquire and to diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with agriculture, in the most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and to procure, propagate, and distribute among the people new and valuable seeds and plants.

1379. Although designated a department, it is not to be confounded with or assimilated in character with the high executive departments of the Government. It is to be classed rather as an independent bureau, for it has no connection with or relation to either of those departments.

1380. Its organization, as provided for by the statutes, is according to the following designation of officers: 1. The Commissioner.

2. A Chief Clerk.

3. A Chemist.

4. An Assistant Chemist.

5. An Entomologist.

6. A Microscopist.

7. A Botanist.

8. A Statistician.

9. A Superintendent of Experimental Gardens, &c. 10. An Assistant Superintendent.

11. A Disbursing Clerk.

12. A Superintendent of Seed Room.

13. An Assistant Superintendent.

14. A Librarian.

15. An Engineer.

16. A Superintendent of the Folding Room.

THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE.

1381. The Commissioner is authorized to appoint the Chief Clerk, who in all cases, during the necessary absence of the Commissioner or in case of a vacancy, is required to perform the duties of the Commissioner. He is also authorized to appoint the other employees provided for by act of Congress. (R. S., § 523.)

1382. Both the Commissioner and the Chief Clerk are required, before entering upon their respective duties, to give bond, the former in ten thousand dollars and the latter in five thousand dollars, conditioned for the rendering of a true and faithful account to the Treasurer of the United States, quarter-yearly, of all moneys received by them in virtue of their office. (R. S., § 524.)

1383. The Commissioner is invested with the charge of the building and premises appropriated to the department, and of the library, furniture, fixtures, records, and other property appertaining to the department. (R. S., §§ 197, 525.)

1384. He is required to procure and preserve all information concerning agriculture which he can obtain by means of books and correspondence and by practical and scientific experiments, accurate records of which experiments are to be kept in his office; also by means of the collection of statistics, and by other appropriate means within his power. He is required to collect new and valuable seeds and plants; to test by cultivation the value of such of them as may require such tests; to propagate such