CONVENTION OF ASSOCIATION OF OFFICIAL AGRICULTURAL 



CHEMISTS, 1897. 



W. H. Beal, 



Office of Experiment Stations. 



The fourteenth annual convention of the Association of Official 

 Agricultural Chemists was held in the lecture hall of the Columbian 

 University at Washington, D. C, October 26-28, W. Frear presiding. 

 About 60 members were in attendance. 



The annual address of the president, W. Frear, was devoted to a 

 brief review of the origin, history, and work of the Association, with 

 suggestions as to the direction which this work should take. 



" Primarily, the work of the Association has been chiefly along the lines of 

 importance to the official chemist. This must still be, to a large extent, true of the 

 Association's work. But it will fail of its high opportunities and choose an ideal 

 lower than it may properly select, if its work be not pushed also, in a large meas- 

 ure, along more distinctly scientific lines. . . . 



"The work in determination of available plant food in soils, the study of the 

 methods of analysis applicable to slag phosphates, the test of various methods for 

 the separation and determination of simple substauces and narrower, better defined 

 groups of substances, in cattle foods and dairy products, the studies of solubilities 

 of various phosphates, may be cited as illustrations of valuable work by the Asso- 

 ciation in this field. If we would accomplish most, we must remember that the 

 ideal accomplishment is not the perfection of an arbitrary method for the determi- 

 nation of an ill-defined group of substances, but. much further on, the attainment 

 of a method by which such a group may be resolved into its simple components, and 

 the effective value of each determined." 



Special emphasis was laid upon the importance of the food supply 

 question. The enormous production and consumption of foods in the 

 United States and the extent of their adulteration were cited as argu- 

 ments in favor of a food control with uniform laws and methods 

 throughout the country. 



Statistics indicate that fully one- third of the income of the American 

 people is expended for food, food accessories, and beverages and that 

 from 5 to 15 per cent of the entire food supply upon our market is adul- 

 terated, at least 10 per cent of the adulteration being injurious to 

 health. It is, therefore, fully as imperative that analytical methods for 

 the detection of adulteration should be applied to foods as to fertilizers 

 and other agricultural products. 



Two ways in which the Association may assist food control chemists 

 are suggested, (1) u by the careful selection, accurate description, and 

 test of methods fitted for the control examination of various classes of 

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