34 REPOKT OF THE COMMISSIONEll OF AGRICULTURE. 



(4) Bee culture. — Au exliibit i.o show all the more valuable methods 

 and contrivances now in use among advanced apiarians. 



(5) Silk culture. — This exhibit was rendered the more instructive by 

 having a structure where the worms were hatched and raised during 

 the period of the exposition. 



The statistical division was represented by a series of graphic charts. 

 This method of illustration is the best interpreter of statistics to the 

 popular mind. The object kept prominently in view in the preparation 

 of these diagrams was to make the meaning of important facts in Amer- 

 ican agriculture so plain that they could be intelligently understood by 

 those not accustomed to analyze the purport of figures. Among the 

 more prominent of these diagrams were those (1) showing the proportion 

 of land in farms ; (2) increase of farm acreage in thirty years ; (3) farm 

 values of agricultural products ; (4) valuesof farm animals; (5) increase 

 of farm animals in thirty years ; (6) progress of wheat production in 

 thirty years; (7) exportation of wheat in fifty-eight years ; (8) progress 

 of corn production; (9) exportation of corn in fifty-eight years; (10) 

 production of cereals in thirty years ; (11) progress of cotton produc- 

 tion ; (12) area of cotton ; .(13) sugar production and consumption ; (14) 

 farm and forest areas, and many others of similar value. 



The botanical division was represented by a very large collection of 

 grasses, collected from all parts of the country. Among these a collec- 

 tion from the Western plains was notably interesting. These were ar- 

 ranged and displayed so as to represent their respective values, whether 

 for hay or pasturage, and their ability to withstand dry summers or to 

 be useful in dry sections and localities. The report of this exhibit is 

 intended to illustrate these and other values of the grasses forming the 

 collection. 



The microscopical division was represented by a collection of water- 

 color drawings, numbering about eight hundred plates, representing 

 the leading types of the genera and species of fungi, embracing many 

 of the edible and poisonous species found in this country ; also types of 

 the genera and species of the principal microscopic fungi which prey on 

 living plants or are otherwise prejudicial to their healthy growth. This 

 extensive collection was interesting and valuable. 



The chemical division was represented by a well fitted and furnished 

 sugar laboratory, with all appliances and apparatus required in the 

 analysis of sugar-cane and its products. This was maintained in work- 

 ing condition, under the superintendemce of a competent chemist, during 

 the entire period of the exposition, who was constantly employed in mak- 

 ing analyses of the products of sugar plantations. Another representa- 

 tion, which proved to be of much interest, was a working apparatus for 

 the extraction of sugar by diffusion, as an economic substitute for the 

 usual method of extracting the juice from the cane by mechanical press- 

 ure. 



In addition to the above an elaborate display was made of sorghum 

 sugar and the manufactures of which it is susceptible. 



At the Centennial Exhibition, held at Philadelphia in 187G, where I 

 had the honor of representing the Department in a similar capacity as 

 at the late exposition at ISTew Orleans, I prepared, as a part of the ex- 

 hibit of the Department, a collection of American woods, which was ac- 

 knowledged to be the best display of the kind made up to that time. 

 Js'ot considering it necessary to repeat that exhibit, I resolved to make 

 an effort to form a showing of the uses of American looods. Although 

 time would not allow for its full completion as I had designed, yet 

 enough was collected to show its value in relation to forestry and the 



