REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OP AGRICULTURE. 19 



causes many diseases of fruits aud grains, cotton and other plants. 

 Tlie cotton crop of the present year lias been reduced materially by 

 unfavorable meteorological conditions, by a failure of the preservation 

 of a due balance between the forces of heat and moisture. 



There are investigations of a practical nature in agricultural meteor- 

 ology which have not yet been made; there are problems which have 

 not yet been solved. The practical api)lication of this as yet unde- 

 veloped science is of very great importance and should receive the 

 immediate attention of ofiGcial and experimental organizations. To 

 this end I would sugerest, and venture to urge, the establishment of a 

 signal-service station in connection with each college of agriculture 

 and agricultural experiment station, for the routine work of the signal 

 service and for special obscrvatiou, under direction of the college or 

 station, for investigation of meteorological conditions affecting the 

 health and growth of plants. 



MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



For a number of years past the attention of medical men and phar- 

 macists has been unusually attracted toward the subject of medicinal 

 plants, both native and foreign, and the last annual meeting of the 

 American Pharmaceutical Association by resolution requested the Com- 

 nii^ioner of Agriculture to take measures for the introduction into cul- 

 tivation in this country of such of the important foreign medicinal 

 plants as may be adapted to our climate, in order that they may be 

 readily obtainable in a fresh state, and that another industry may be 

 added to our country's resources. It is represented that many hundred 

 thousand dollars are annually sent abroad for drugs and medicinal sub- 

 stances that should be produced at home. There is no doubt that many 

 of the most important medicinal plants, as the rhubarb plant, the 

 hcorice plant, arnica, belladonna, digitalis, opium poppy, and many 

 others are perfectly adapted to our climate, and could be cultivated in 

 perfection, as we know with respect to some of them, from experiments 

 made many years ago. Some other semi-tropical products, as ginger, 

 cinchona, vanilla, jalep, and sarsaparilla, may in all probability be suc- 

 cessfully cultivated iu the extreme southern portion of the country, and 

 it would seem well that means should be taken to give such plants a 

 proper trial. 



A new and powerful anaesthetic remedy prepared from the leaves of 

 a shrub called coca, or botanically Erythroxylon coca, has been re- 

 cently introduced into medical and surgical practice. 



This shrub is a native of Central and South America, and on account 

 of the difliculty of obtaining the leaves in a fresh and active state, it 

 has been thought highly desirable that the growth and cultivation of 

 the plant should be attempted, in some locality, within our own borders. 



With respect to our native medicinal ])lants and drags, their collec- 

 tion and tralfic have been very greatly extended during the past dec- 



