9f) STATE BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.. 



etc., etc. Some of these articles have been widely circulated in the public 

 press. 



American Public Health Association, — I was elected a niembor of this Asso- 

 ciation in 1873. I have attended many of its meetings. In 1879 I was 

 elected 2d Vice President; in 1880, 1st Vice President, and in 1881, Presi- 

 dent. These are highly prized honors, but they impose heavy duties. The 

 duties of President this year made a large demand upon my time and energy 

 both in extensive correspondence and in attendance on the meetings in St. 

 Paul and Indianapolis. The object of the association is the promotion of the 

 public health. As uo class in the community arc more interested in the 

 public health than farmers, and more benefited by its preservation, it seems 

 proper that a Professor in an xVgricultural College should contribute what lay 

 within his power to advancing the public health. 



Hand-Book of Chemical Analysis. — In 1869 I prepared and privately printed 

 a Handbook of Inorganic Analysis for the use of my students, and printed 

 a second edition in 1875. This Handbook has been used as a text-book in five 

 colleges. The demand for the book has been so great that the second edition 

 is exhausted, and I shall prepare a third and enlarged edition the coming 

 winter. 



Society jor the Promotion of Scientific Agriculture. — I have been a member 

 of this Society from its first organization ; have attended all its meetings, and 

 read papers at all its annual meetings. 



EXPERIMENTS IN SORGHUM. 



The last Legislature appropriated, for the Chemical Department, $1,500 a 

 year for 1881 and 1882, for the purchase of apparatus and for special investi- 

 gations in chemistry. One of the topics which leading members of the Legis- 

 lature desired to have specially investigated was sorghum as a sugar-producing 

 plant, and its capabilities to furnish a desirable table syrup. Last year an 

 acre of amber cane was raised on the College farm, and this year an acre and 

 a quarter. Better results would have been secured if broom corn had not 

 been planted in close proximity to the cane both years, I knew nothing of 

 this arrangement till too late for remedy. A Victor mill and Cook's Auto- 

 matic Evaporator were purchased from the Blymcr Manufacturing Company, 

 of Cincinnati. With these appliances the crops of sorghum for two years 

 have been worked up. The quantity of sugar yet produced is not large, but 

 the beautiful specimens now m my possession are significant of possibilities in 

 this direction, while the quality of table syrups produced, at a cost not 

 exceeding 25 cents a gallon, shows that the farmers may supply themselves 

 with a table syrup of the best quality, entirely free from all grassy or sorghum 

 taste, at a cost far below the glucose syrups now Hooding the markets. With 

 more costly apparatus, defecators and vacuum pans, I have little doubt that 

 sorghum sugar can be manufactured of good quality and at remunerative 

 rates. With the abundant production of sugar and syrup from sorghum, and 

 the perfecting of the electric light, our people may yet find a very literal 

 fulfillment of the demand of Dr. Arnold for human advancement — ^'sweet- 

 ness and light P' 



EXPERIMENTS ON THE 60UR0ES OP NITROGEN IN PLANTS. 



The vexed problem in agricultural chemistry is the source of the nitrogen 

 in plants; the most pressing demand in high farming is an abundant and 



