. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. XXVll 



of the Department. The ]a])oratories at Johns Hopkins and Harvard 

 universities were visited, and the machinery and processes in vog-ue 

 studied. As a result of these investigations, I have established in the 

 Division of Chemistry a laboratory for the study of good road mate- 

 rials, in order to determine what materials or what mixtures of mate- 

 rials are best suited to road making. 



MISCELLANEOUS WORK. 



The Division of Chemistry, in addition to the above outline of its 

 investigations, has charge of a large quantity of miscellaneous work 

 bearing directly and indirectly upon agricultural subjects. This work 

 includes the analysis of raw and manufactured fertilizers, waters 

 intended for irrigation or for watering stock, soils of miscellaneous 

 origin, whose examination can not be secured in the State agricultural 

 experiment stations, and man}^ other analyses of a character incapable 

 of classification. 



As will be seen from the above report, the work of the Division of 

 Chemistry touches almost every branch of agriculture and every 

 department of the Governmental service. 



DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 

 IMPORTATION OF BENEFICIAL INSECTS. 



In my last Report I referred to the important work being done under 

 the direction of the Entomologist in the importation and establish- 

 ment of the insect which fertilizes the Smyrna iig. This insect was 

 successfully carried through the winter, and during the summer it 

 has been cared for with such good results that in one locality in Cali- 

 fornia more than 6 tons of Smyrna figs of the highest grade of excel- 

 lence have been produced and packed. Down to the present year the 

 Smyrna fig has had a practical monopoly of the dried-fig market of 

 the world. None had been successfully grown in America. The 

 direct result of the importation and establishment of this insect will 

 be to make America a strong competitor in the dried-fig trade in the 

 world's markets. Other beneficial insects have been introduced into 

 the United States. An important parasite has been imported from 

 Africa, which preys upon the olive scale, an insect very injurious to 

 the olive groves in California. A f ung-ous disease of grasshoppers has 

 been introduced from Natal, which has destroj^ed injurious swarms of 

 locusts in Colorado and Mississippi. The Entomologist is endeavoring 

 to introduce European parasites of the gipsy moth. It is hoped they 

 will be efiective against this injurious species, on which the State of 

 Massachusetts has ceased to make war. 



