Department of Agriculture Fields In 1863, the Commissioner of Public Buildings offered the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/289">Department of Agriculture</a> the land between 12th and 14th streets and <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/311">North</a> and <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/312">South B Streets</a> (today's Constitution and Independence Avenues) for use as an experimental garden for agricultural purposes. The land assigned to the Department was part of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/237">Washington Monument cattle yards</a> created to supply food to Union troops during the Civil War. After the Civil War in 1865, the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/324">Department grew test crops on the undeveloped spaces of the mall for over a decade</a>. <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Titian+Ramsey+Peale">Titian Ramsey Peale</a> William Henry Seward Papers, University of Rochester Library, via Smithsonian Institution. <a href="http://civilwar.si.edu/l_smithsonian_castle3.html">View original</a>. 1863 <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1860-1889">1860-1889</a>