Proclamation 3425—United States Department of Agriculture Centennial Year

Whereas May 15, 1962, marks the centennial of the approval by President Lincoln of legislation establishing the United States Department of Agriculture; and

Whereas the Department of Agriculture through its research, service, and educational work has enabled our farmers and ranchers, processors, and distributors to provide the food, fiber, and wood products necessary to a healthful, vigorous, and expanding population through increased efficiency in the production, utilization, and marketing of agricultural products; and

Whereas an economically sound agriculture and a rewarding rural life are essential to the national well-being; and

Whereas our productive agriculture has enabled the Government and many private organizations to initiate programs to alleviate hunger and suffering among peoples throughout the world; and

Whereas the emergence of a progressive, efficient, and productive agriculture during the one hundred years since the establishment of the Department of Agriculture has resulted in large measure from the close cooperation between the Department of Agriculture and the national system of land-grant universities and colleges which was founded under the first Morrill Act of July 2, 1862, and this historical anniversary will also be observed during the same year; and

Whereas the Congress, by a joint resolution approved August 25, 1961, has requested the President to issue a proclamation designating 1962 as the centennial year of the establishment of the United States Department of Agriculture:

Now, Therefore, I, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the year 1962 as United States Department of Agriculture Centennial Year; and I request the Department of Agriculture to plan and to participate in appropriate activities recognizing the anniversary to the end that the centennial may serve as an occasion to commemorate the contributions of agriculture to the health and welfare of every citizen, to the national well-being, and to the development of emerging nations.

I also request that, in its centennial observances, the Department of Agriculture cooperate with the land-grant universities and colleges in recognition of a century of mutually beneficial cooperative relationships, and with other appropriate organizations and individuals.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this twenty-fifth day of August in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-sixth.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

By the President:

DEAN RUSK,

Secretary of State.