100 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



WHAT THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE HAS DONE TOWARD A STATE 



BOTANICAL SURVEY. 



The above is the title of a paper prepared by the writer and accepted 

 by the Botanical Section of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science at its meeting held in Boston, Mass., last August: 



Members of the State Academy of Science are all much interested in 

 the progress of a State Natural History Survey. For convenience, I have 

 here brought together a brief summary of this work, .so far as it pertains 

 to botany and this College. For some years past I have, at certain times, 

 taken work upon myself which is usually performed by assistants and 

 instructors, and thus liberated Professor Wheeler or some instructor for 

 a day or two or three, or for as many weeks, to visit certain promising 

 regions of the State, observing, taking notes and making collections for 

 the herbarium and the botanic garden. We intend to do our best to con- 

 tinue this work whenever it is possible to do so. In the interest of agri- 

 culture, horticulture, botany and forestry this work seems especially ap- 

 propriate for an agricultural college. 



The names of the publications here enumerated appear neither alpha 

 betically nor in chronological order, but they are grouped more or less 

 according to the reports in which they were printed : 



The Flora of Michigan (in "Michigan and its Resources," 1888) 

 Compiled by Frederick Morley, Commissioner of Immigration. The 

 article under the above heading was prepared by W. J. Beal. 



The Broad-Leaved Trees of Michigan (in "Michigan and Its Re- 

 sources," 1893). Compiled by the Secretary of State. The article here 

 referred to was prepared by W. J. Beal. 



Michigan Plants that Afford Honey for Bees. By W. J. Beal. 

 Two papers have been prepared, after a careful study of the flora of the 

 State, with reference to this topic: One of them appeared in Gleanings 

 Lit Bee Culture, Vol. 4 (1876), Medina, Ohio; the other, in the Report of the 

 State Pomological [Horticultural] Society, 1876. 



Native Trees and Shrubs Best Adapted for Planting About a 

 Home. By W. J. Beal. The report of the State Pomological [Horti- 

 cultural] Society, 1877. 



Report of W. J. Beal, Chairman of the Orchard Committee, in the 

 Report of the State Pomological [Horticulture] Society, in 1878, and 

 again in 1877. 



In preparing for the first report, I spent thirty days in visiting the best 

 orchards and vineyards of the State from Monroe to Benton Harbor and 

 Traverse City, and in preparing the second report twenty-five days were 

 occupied in a similar manner. 



In visiting some of the very best farming regions of the State in the 

 southern counties, interior counties, lake-shore counties and newer north- 

 ern counties, we observed the native trees and shrubs and some of the 

 other native plants, especially in the vicinity of the best orchards. Our 

 attention was especially called to the protection of orchards by elevation, 

 by water and by trees and shrubbery. The soil in the vicinity of the best 

 trees in many of the orchards was examined at the surface and to a depth 

 of three feet, and soils from these places were collected and for a time 

 were kept at the Agricultural College. 

 In general, T may say. we <li<l our best in the hard work of 55 days of 



