EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS 131 



The analysis of a soil, to be of much practical value, requires great 

 care in the selection of the soil — a process confessedly demanding ex- 

 perience and good judgment. The thoughtless and haphazzard selection 

 of a soil will probably vitiate the results of the most careful analytical 

 tvork. Few people realize the amount of time and work required for 

 such analysis. A gentleman in Lansing, who called himself a judge of 

 such work, declared that a chemist who knew his business could analyze 

 a soil in five minutes and thus tell how many bushels of wheat per acre 

 such soil would produce. On the contrary, it often takes many hours and 

 sometimes days to bring the soil into solution as the first step in analysis. 



So many things are involved in a practical soil analysis to secure such 

 results as will be of general and permanent value, and so large demand 

 is made upon the time of the Chemist, that the Experiment Station coun- 

 cil, after considering the whole subject, decided by unanimous vote that 

 analysis of soil should be made only by direction of the Station council, 

 and that when such analysis is to be made the sample should be selected 

 by the Chemist or under his direction. 



WHEAT AND FLOUR. 



Many investigations on the relative value of different wheats and their 

 products have been carried forward, primarily for the benefit of millers^ 

 but secondarily for the profit of farmers. These are still in progress. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Complete meteorological observations, taken three times a day, have 

 been taken during the year and the results submitted for publication. 

 The series of such observations has been continued for thirty-three years 

 — the most complete set ever made in this State. The value of such work 

 as related to the climate of our State, and the conditions for general 

 crops and such special crops as sugar beets, becomes manifest. 



Respectfully submitted, 



R. C. KEDZIE, 

 .; Chemist Experiment Station. 



June, 1897. 



