M STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the Ilealtli. Otic was given in the fall term of the same year ; subject, ''The 

 effect of Environtnent to Modify Structure." Tlie third was delivered during 

 the summer term of 1882, and the subject was "The Physiological Effects of 

 the use of Tobacco and Alcohol." I have devoted ail possible spare time to 

 putting up and arranging specimens in the museum. During the two years we 

 have I'eceived large and fine donations from the United States Fish Commis- 

 sion, which were sent through the courtesy of Prof. Spencer E. Baird, of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. We have received a fine donation of insects of the 

 order of Coleoptera from Mr. Henry Hubbard, of Detroit, and as many more 

 insects by exchange. We have also received many other specimens through 

 exchange and donation. During the past summer term I have supervised the 

 moving of the general museum to the new building. The care and manage- 

 ment of the museum has become no small burden, and takes no small part of 

 my time. During the first four terms of the two years I superintended and 

 taught in the College Sabbath-school, which is carried on under the general 

 charge of the Young Men's Christian Association. I taught a class in the 

 Sabbath-school during the following term. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



During the summer of 1881, I continued the experiments previously com- 

 menced to determine the value of the arsenites as a specific against the Codling 

 moth. I also continued the experiments with bisulphide of carbon, which 

 •were begun the previous year. Careful experiments were also made with car- 

 bolic acid, and it was ascertained that it was very valuable. I also worked out 

 some anatomical points regarding bees, which were before unknown. These 

 researches were embodied in papers read before the Cincinnati meeting of the 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, and published in its proceedings. 



During the past season I have made careful experiments to determine the 

 minimum amount of the arsenites — Paris green and London purple — which, 

 will be effectual in destroying insects, and the length of time the poisons 

 remain on the plants, under different conditions of rain and drouth, in 

 sufficient quantities to be effective. The results are of no small practical 

 importance, and with the details of the experiments were given before the 

 meeting of the Association for the Promotion of Agriculture at its late meet- 

 ing at Montreal. I have also made investigations to determine the nature of 

 the so-called "dry feces" of bees. I find that the nature of these pellets is 

 entirely misunderstood by the persons who have given them consideration; 

 that they are not feces at all, and that bees never void their feces in a dry state. 

 The results and minutise of these experiments were given in my annual 

 address as President of the North American Bee-keepers' Association at its 

 last meeting held at Cincinnati. It is probable that both of these papers will 

 appear in the next volume of the Report of the State Board of Agriculture. I 

 have also made numerous experiments in hopes to find a practical method by 

 which queens may be fertilized in confinement. Though I have not succeeded, 

 I have had one queen that had her wing clipped as soon as she emerged from 

 the cell, and which was confined to the hive, fertilized. This leads me to hope 

 that this great desideratum may yet be realized. I have also experimented to 

 determine the relation, if any, between tlie state of the weather and the 

 amount of honey secretion. In this pursuit I have weighed a hive with bees 

 each night after the bees were all in the hive, and so learned the gain or loss 

 of honey. The results arc curious, and often inexplicable; but it will take 



