698 ANNUAL BErOBTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURB. 



NITROGEN WORK. 



A laboratory is especially equipped for determinin<^ nitrogen and 

 to it are referred all samples on which this determination is to be 

 made. A total of 11,885 such analyses were made in the past fiscal 

 year, the samples being referred not only from the laboratories of this 

 bureau but from other bureaus of this department and also from 

 other departments, as follows: 



Department of Agriculture: 



Bureau of Plant Industry 1, 71S 



Bureau of Soils , 20S 



Bureau of Animal Industry 18 



Office of Experiment Stations 2 



Forestry Service 24 



General supply committee ■ 12 



War Department IS 



Isthmian Canal Commission 12 



Treasury Department, Bureau of Engraving and Printing 42 



Government Printing Office 74 



Post Office Department 34 



Total 2, 142 



The laboratory has also continued to collaborate with other nitro- 

 gen chemists in studies for the improvement of the present methods 

 of analysis. 



PUBLICATIONS AND PRINTING. 



The following publications have been submitted to the Secretary 

 and sent to press during the past year: Sixteen bulletins (1,051 

 pages), 24 circulars (212 pages), 3 unnumbered circulars (107 pages), 

 2 farmers' bulletins (62 pages), 1 Yearbook article (12 pages), 8 

 food-inspection decisions (9 pages), and 642 notices of judgment 

 (1,143 pages, received from the Office of the Solicitor), making a 

 total of 3,039 pages of new material published. 



The food-inspection decisions included Nos. 139 to 146 and cov- 

 ered rulings on sweet oil, vinegars, maraschino cherries, saccharin, 

 candied citron, canned foods, and bleached oats. The subjects of 

 special interest treated in the bulletins are the processing of persim- 

 mons, production of wood turpentine, growth of wheat seedlings, 

 elimination and toxicity of caffein, enological studies, and canning 

 of foods. The circulars cover a wide range of chemical investigations, 

 as tests for mineral oils, determination of citric and malic acids, esti- 

 mation of arsenic, grading of rosin at the still, studies on chicken fat 

 and on eggs (fresh, frozen, and dried), and investigations of bees- 

 wax, mixtures of certain acid coal-tar dyes, American spearmint oil, 

 gum tragacanth, coumarin, marking porcelain and silica crucibles, 

 measurement of the translucency of papers, and calcium-carbid 

 method for determining moisture. 



There were issued 173 requests for job printing, covering all sta- 

 tionery supplies, forms, circular letters, etc., and 223 requests on 

 the photographic laboratory for drawings and photographs in con- 

 nection with the illustration of bulletins or the construction of labo- 

 ratory equipment. 



