No. 20.
Mr. Jay to
Mr. Fish.
Vienna, December 26, 1874. (Received January 23, 1875.)
Sir: I have received your No. 454, under date of December 8, inclosing copy of a note from the Commissioner of Agriculture, dated December 5, in reply to one addressed to that Commissioner by the Department, inclosing a copy of my No. 821, asking for information on the potato-disease [Page 46] for the Swiss minister at Vienna, Mr. Tschudi, and copies of the Agricultural Reports for 1872 and 1873.
I beg leave to return to the Department, and, through the courteous intervention of the Department, to Mr. Commissioner Watts, my thanks for this obliging attention to my requests.
I have communicated an extract from the note of the Commissioner, with remarks upon the Colorado potato beetle, to the Swiss minister, together with the Agricultural Reports for 1872 and 1873, and I inclose a translation of his excellency’s note in reply.
At the close of the note of the Commissioner of Agriculture I find the expression of a wish that I would “forward all the recent statistical and agricultural publications of the present year of the minister of agriculture;” and the note adds, “that, if he has not a fall set of the reports of the Agricultural Department at Washington, the number necessary to complete it will be forwarded with pleasure.”
In pursuance of this request, I asked Mr. Delaplaine to call upon Mr. Chlumecky, the minister of agriculture, who he found was absent at Men tone. He saw, however, the chief of section, Chevalier Weber von Ebenhof, who gave him two volumes containing a full report of the ministry of agriculture from its origin to the 30th of June last. Mr. von Ebenhof remarked that the statistical statements in these volumes were not very ample, but that more complete tables were being completed for publication.
He added that several treatises in separate form relating to the Reblaus (Phylloxera vastatrix) were in the possession of the ministry, of which he would transmit copies to this legation. The ravages of this insect were now producing great damage in the vine-growing districts of Austria, and the treatises referred to contained the results of various experiments made at Klosterneuburg (on the Danube, near Vienna) with the view of exterminating the insect; but thus far the means employed had been fatal also to the plant. He referred to the insidious attacks by the insect upon the roots, while the appearance of the vine did not indicate their presence.
Alluding to the Colorado potato-beetle, he said that he believed that the marine branch of the ministry of war had given strict orders to prevent its possible introduction at Trieste through the shipment or sale of potatoes forming unconsumed stores of vessels arriving there.
In conclusion, he expressed his thanks for the courtesy of the Department of Agriculture at Washington in offering to supply the ministry of agriculture with any missing reports, which he remarked would be most acceptable. He is to send a memorandum to the legation on this point, which I will forward when it is received.
I have occasionally presented volumes of our Agricultural Reports to Austrian and Hungarian gentlemen largely engaged in agriculture, and from the remarks made to me I think that their value is very much appreciated. The display of agricultural machines at the Exposition, although not large, was extremely good, and attracted much attention, especially among the great landed proprietors. There are a dozen gentlemen of this class to whom I can send with advantage any surplus volumes which the Commissioner may find it convenient to furnish for the purpose, and, should the idea be approved, I would recommend that the copies may be bound with an inscription within, “Presented by the Department of Agriculture,” &c., leaving the name to be filled in at the legation.
I have, &c.,