REPORT OF THE COMJVIIGSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 37 



crystals under the varied conditions mentioned, will be employed to 

 illustrate the subject in the annual report of the division. 



This is believed to transcend in importance all others whose inves- 

 tigations have been imposed upon the division, and much study and 

 time have therefore been devoted to it. As the investigations are 

 completed the Microscopist will give his attention to the adulteration 

 of other food supplies, as also to an examination of certain fibers, &c. 

 The results of these will be embodied in a future report. 



POMOLOGICAL DIVISION. 



Another subject which I last year commended to your considera- 

 tion has, I am glad to say, received that recognition from Congress 

 which it has long deserved, and I have been enabled to establish dur- 

 ing the year a Pomological Division in this Department. 



The satisfaction of many leading thinkers with this departure has 

 been generously expressed, not only through correspondence, but 

 through offers of hearty co-operation in the methods employed to es- 

 tablish the division in a proper way. It is too early in the history of 

 the division to enumerate definite results, but there is every prospect 

 that, if properly encouraged, we shall be able to furnish the country, 

 and especially its pomological and horticultural industries, with in- 

 formation of value. The United States contains some of the largest 

 and best adapted fruit-producing regions of the world. Farmers 

 everywhere are beginning to give thought to the necessity of diver- 

 sification, and naturally a fruit orchard suggests itself as the fit suc- 

 cessor of those crops which year after year have been exhausting his 

 soil and lessening his annual profits more and more. The all-impor- 

 tant step to the thoughtful farmer, then, is necessarily the first one. 

 "What can science and the latest results of experience and information 

 teach him in the matter of adaptation of fruit trees to particular soils 

 and climates? This is what the division will endeavor to undertake 

 to set forth. Different pomological experimenters, as well as agri- 

 cultural colleges, have generously offered their grounds and per- 

 sonal labors to assist in any experiments that may be instituted. 



We may also make an investigation relative to foreign fruits, and 

 the probability of their successful importation and development in 

 American soil, to meet the demands of local markets; we may as- 

 certain the habitat of every fruit now known, and in diverse ways 

 assist an industry whose annual product probably represents a value 

 of $150,000,000, and is an important one to the United States. Our 

 • people need to plant intelligently, as well as to reap intelligence 

 through public schools, and it is just as much the province of the 

 General Government to assist them in one as in the other. Horti- 

 culture is elevating in all its tendencies, and, by advancing and pro- 

 tecting and promoting this and other branches of agriculture, our 



