130 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



a material so often mistaken for the precious metal that it has been 

 named ''fool's gold." If the chemist has not developed a bonanza in such 

 cases, he has at least saved the parties from a useless expense and greater 

 disappointment. A farmer finds a whitish deposit at the bottom of a 

 muck bed and sends it to the Station, and then learns about marl and its 

 uses. 



Samples of another kind often come to the chemist. A party sent the 

 stomach of an animal for analysis to determine what poison had been 

 given, assigning no reason for such request. A woman sent a vial of 

 medicine to be analyzed at once, "because it affected her so queerly and 

 she was sure the druggist had made a mistake, and he would have to pay 

 for it dearly." In these cases the chemist probably lost an opportunity 

 to figure as witness in court at a dollar per day, while paying two dollars 

 daily for hotel bill. 



A State institution wants analysis of the kinds of soils on their farm 

 to find w^hat fertilizers they had better buy. A good friend sends several 

 kinds of marl and clay for analysis to determine their value for making 

 Portland cement. Each of these analyses would take the entire time 

 of a chemist for at least one week and would be of no value to the pub- 

 lic, but only to the parties concerned. 



THE AGRICULTURAL CHEMIST AND THE PUBLIC. 



Perhaps there is a misconception as to the duties of the College chemist. 

 His first and most important duty is to teach the classes in chemistry 

 and carry on the work of the College in this line. In the second place, 

 as Chemist of the Experiment Station, it is his duty to carry out such 

 investigations of a chemical nature as will aid the other departments of 

 the Station; and thirdly, to carry on such work of a chemical nature as 

 will be of benefit to the public. Manifestly it is not his business, at 

 the neglect of the three classes of duties just enumerated, to take up 

 work of a miscellaneous kind, for any one who may apply, which will 

 be of no benefit or interest to the public and will be valuable only to the 

 individual concerned. Work should be carried on which will be of most 

 value to the greatest number. 



ANALYSIS OF MICHIGAN SOILS. 



Nearly twenty years ago the Chemist tried to make a collection of 

 soils that would be fairly representative of the soils of different counties 

 in the State, to make analysis of such soils and publish the results as a 

 kind of chemical soil-map of the State. The plan was only imperfectly 

 carried out, many counties failing to furnish samples for this purpose. 

 The results, such as they were, were published in the report of the State 

 Board of Agriculture for 1878. 



As a contribution to the Agricultural section of the College exhibit to 

 the Quadricentennnial Exposition in Chicago in 1893, this department 

 gathered additional samples of soil, analyzed them, and presented the 

 results of 38 samples of soil in Bulletin 99, which was widely distributed 

 in Chicago. 



It is thus shown that the College has taken a lively interest in the 

 composition of Michigan soils. 



