DEPAKTMENT EEPORTS. 89 



and prices, where and how to secure animals for breeding purposes, etc. Many 

 write to ask about the capabilities of Michigan soils for general farming pur- 

 poses., their adaptation to fruit raising or stock breeding ; others in regard to 

 the health of tlie State, or the healthfulness of particular localities; others 

 concerning the value of certain articles of diet and their influence on the 

 human economy, or how to detect the more con.imon adulterations of food; 

 others ask for information about books treating on special subjects; some how 

 to make hair grow, and others how to take it off. In short, letters pour in 

 upon me in number and variety of topics that will find parallel only in those 

 sent to that treasure-house of all useful information, the newspaper editor! 

 It would take no small part of the time of one clerk to answer the inquiries 

 which cannot be neglected without giving serious offence. 



Materials for Analysis. — A bewildering variety of substances are sent hero 

 for chemical analysis. Marls, mucks, minerals of great variety, ores innu- 

 merable, clays, and plastic materials, soils, limestones, building stones, patent 

 medicines, secret nostrums, hair dyes, corn cures, lotions, liniments, culinary 

 and potable waters, mineral waters for the detection and identification of the 

 curative agencies which they do not possess, etc. Analyses for medico-legal 

 purposes, the detection and punishment of crime. These and kindred sub- 

 jects for investigation serve to fill up the spare hours of the chemist ! 



Meteorological Observations. — The meteorological observations which were 

 begun in 1S63 have been continued to the present time, giving more than 

 nineteen years of continuous observations. They are the most complete 

 record ever kept in this State, and will become more valuable each year. 



Farmers^ Institutes. — The farmers' institutes which were inaugurated in 

 1875 mainly through my efforts have been continued up to the present time. 

 They have accomplished so much good, have given such an impetus to every- 

 thing pertaining to agriculture, and been so instrumental in bringing into har- 

 monious action all classes who are interested in the greatest and noblest of 

 human avocations that it is no wonder they have spread into neighboring 

 states. The interest thus awakened in all that pertains to agriculture will 

 spread and deepen as the years flow on. 



I attended the Farmers' Institutes in Greenville and Macon last January, 

 and delivered at each place a lecture on the Kipening of Wheat, giving the 

 chemical composition of wheat at different periods of ripening, from the 

 earliest formation of the berry up to dead-ripeness. The grain (Schumacher 

 and Clawson) was gathered at intervals of 24 hours for 21 days in succession, 

 and the 42 specimens of grain were submitted to careful chemical analysis, 

 by which means the successive chemical changes in the development and 

 ripening of the grain were accurately determined. This paper was also read 

 before the Society for the Promotion of Scientific Agriculture at its meeting 

 in Cincinnati in August, 1881. It has attracted attention not only in this 

 country, but also in Europe. W. H. Brewer, Professor of Agriculture in Yale 

 College, publicly said in Cincinnati that " this is the most important contribu- 

 tion ever made to the chemistry of the ripening of wheat." Ths results of 

 this investigation are embodied in the Agricultural Section of the United 

 States Census. 



Miscellaneous Investigations. — I have made many investigations which would 

 beditficult to classify, such as the contamination of cistern water, sources of 

 such defilement and means of prevention; modes by which wells become foul 

 by organic filth, the means of averting untimely frosts in spring and autumn. 



