616 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



1-id of IliL' robins eating his choice strawberries by letting his early 

 strawberries get ripe and they eat those and let the others alone. 

 The economic status of the robin is like the economic value of the 

 crow, and I don't think we are justitied in killing it because it comes 

 to us and gets something to eat. 1 believe instead of exterminating 

 them we should use some method by which they can be attracted to 

 some other fruit which is not so valuable. One method is to plant 

 fruit trees along the roadside for which the owner will be allowed 

 some rebate of taxes and at the same time the robin will feed upon 

 those fruits. 



DR. CONAED : I noticed on three different occasions when the 

 seventeen year locusts w'ere plenty the robins did not disturb the 

 cherries. Last summer we had quite a good crop of sweet cherries 

 and they hung there and dried up, those that we did not use, and 

 the birds did not use them, showing that if they have insects to feed 

 upon they prefer insects. That w'as one year ago last summer. 



The CHAIRMAN: Report of Col. Demming, Mineralogist of the 

 Board. 



The report read b}' Col. Demming is-as follows: 



REPORT OF THE MIXERAUXUST. 



By Col. Ue.nhy C. Demminc;. Mineraloiiint. 



The best silicates of this Commonwealth are becoming more and 

 more important, commercially. A few^ years ago any kind of sand 

 would do for mortar or plastering, and tlu^ use of best sand for 

 purifying water was not taken into account. Science has made 

 such advances that all this is changed, and attention is called to the 

 importance of the purest silica sand, not onl}' for filtering purposes, 

 but numerous other ways. Many of our streams have become so 

 polluted by sewerage and other foul sources, that to use gravel or 

 sand from their beds is positively dangerous to health and a menace 

 to human life. The main rivers oi" the Commonwei'.lth are reeking 

 in places with decomposed vegetation and putrid animal matter, 

 and when the two come togetlnu- under the sun's hot rays, disease- 

 breeding germs are a sure resuli. In proof of this, some time ago 

 a (quantity of sand was taken from one of our best known river beds. 

 An analysis yielded nearly 20 per cent, of organic matter; some of 

 it coal, but a large ]>ro])ortion decayed or partly decayed vegetable 

 and animal matter. It v.as a verv easy task to have cultures from 



