REPORT OF THE CHEMIST 127 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



Investigations Relating to Dairying. — These include the examination of milk pre- 

 served by hydrogen peroxide as received from Denmark (the Budde method), the ana- 

 lysis of a milk powder prepared from whey, an inquiry into the volatile acid content of 

 two-year-old cheese, and several other matters of more or less interest. The reports of 

 these investigations are published in Bulletin No. 8, Dairy Series, May, 1906. 



Grades of Wheat. — In conjunction with the Cereal Division, an investigation to 

 determine the value of the various grades of wheat (Manitoba Inspection Division) was 

 undertaken in the early months of the present year. The results are presented, to- 

 gether with those from the Cereal DiviaJiTi, in Bulletin No. 50 of the Experimental 

 Farms Series. 



The Winter Care of Manure. — This series of experiments was planned to ascertain 

 the losses of plant food that may take place from December to April when manure is 

 piled in large and small heaps, respectively. We are not reporting on the results this 

 year, as it seems desirable to confirm the data by further trials. 



Correspondence. — From November 30, 1904, to December 1, 1905, the letters di- 

 rected to this division, in addition to those referred to us by the other departments of 

 the farms, numbered 1,531; those sent out, 1,441. 



Acknowledgments. — The investigations and analyses undertaken by the Division 

 have satisfactorily progressed, due chiefly to the painstaking and excellent work of the 

 Assistant Chemists, Mr. A. T. Charron, M.A., and Mr. H. W. Charlton, B.A.Sc. My 

 thanks are due to them for most valuable aid in carrying out the various researches 

 here reported on. 



Mr. Charron, in addition to his duties here, has delivered a number of lectures on 

 agricultural topics at Farmers' Institute Meetings, spending a month in the province 

 of Quebec, and another month in New Brunswick. In all, more than 60 addresses were 

 given. 



Mr. J. F. Watson has continued to discharge his duties in connection with the 

 secretarial work of the division and has earned my thanks for the thorough and careful 

 manner in which everything entrusted to him has been done. 



I have the honour to be, sir, 



Your obedient servant, 



FRANK T. SHUTT, 

 Chemist, Dominion Experimental Farms. 



THE NITROGEN-ENRICHMENT OF SOILS THROUGH THE GROWTH OF 



LEGUMES. 



Many analyses of exhausted or, more correctly speaking, partially exhausted soils 

 from cultivated areas have shown unmistakably that in the majority of cases the 

 soil's constituents that have more particularly been dissipated through successive crop- 

 ping and poor farming are organic matter (humus) and its concomitant, nitrogen. 

 Again, it has almost invariably been found that our virgin soils of great productive- 

 ness are well supplied with these constituents and that accompanying them there is a 

 goodly proportion of the mineral elements of plant food in readily assimilable forms. 



As an illustration of the effect of continuous cropping and cultivation, without 

 manure of any kind, on the soil's nitrogen-content, the following cases may be cited: 

 During the past season samples of soils — virgin and cultivated, and from closely ad- 

 jacent areas — were collected in the North-west Territories and analysed. The re- 



