18 DEPARTMENTAL REFOKTS. 



extent of the investigation in tliis case are both well exhibited in the 

 following: 



Classified list of samples examined. 



Beef (roast, boiletl. coi-ned, dried, and smoked) . 54 



Toni^ue (calf, lamb, ox, and luncheon) . _ .... 16 



Ham and hacon. .. .. 15 



(.hie Ken, turkey, duck, and goose . . 35 



(lame ... . . -. ..... ._ _ 10 



Potted and deviled goods (beef, chicken, game, ham, mixed, tongue, and tur- 

 key) . .- -. - -- 81 



Sausage (Frankfurt, Vienna, and miscellaneous) . 25 



Pate s. purees, etc _ . _ 31 



Soni)s - - 156 



Meat extracts ... 47 



Miscellaneous meat preparations _ . 43 



Total.- -. 518 



In the course of the work 39 samples of horse meat were obtained 

 and used for various analytical investigations, made for the purpose 

 of finding a ready and certain means of detecting the presence of 

 horseflesh in commercial meat products. Including these, the total 

 number of samples examined is 552. 



SOIL STUDIES. 

 COMPILATION AND ARRAN(iEMENT OF THE DATA OF SOIL STUDIES. 



The first series of studie.? relating to the relation between soil com- 

 position and the character and amount of crop produced has been 

 conipleted, and the data obtained have been partially classified and 

 studied. This series of observations has lasted for five years, and the 

 anal^'tical data collected are very extensive. These data include the 

 study of the structure of the soil as a whole, the determination of 

 the jiarts of the soil soluble in various chemical reagents, a study of 

 the physical texture of the soils under experiment, and the analyses 

 of the crops grown on the soils over a period of five years, ^y the 

 alternation of a crop of buckwheat with oats and beans it has been 

 possible to secure two harvests a year, the buckwheat following the 

 first two crops. The total number of soils under experiment is 177. 

 Since two crops were obtained from each soil each year, the total 

 number of separate harvests obtained and analyzed is 1,770. The 

 proper arrangement and study of such a mass of analytical data is a 

 work of great magnitude, and will requii>e some time for completion. 



PLANT DISEASES WHICH HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED DURING SOIL EXPERIMENTS, AND 



METHODS OF COMBATING THEM. 



During the summer of 1899 it was discovered that the beans grown 

 upon the soils contained in several pots were being preyed upon by a 

 certain parasitic fungus whose ravages greatly detracted from the 

 value of the experiments, the plants in many cases being so dwarfed 

 as to make it impossible to place any reliable interpretation whatever 

 upon the results. At our request the source of the trouble was very 

 carefully investigated by the Division of Vegetable Physiology and 

 Pathology, and it was found that the beans planted were affected by 

 a species of Fusarium, a parasitic fungus which is closely related to 

 the one which causes the cotton and melon diseases of the South. 



In order to destroy the fungus and to obtain, if possible, a normal 

 growth during the present season, it was decided to sterilize the soils 



