4 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



staudard of kuowledge wLicli now distiuguishes the other professions of 

 life. It is gratifying to know that these institutions appreciate the 

 effort the Department makes to co-operate with them in the promotion 

 of a knowledge of scientific agriculture, and promise to communicate 

 promptly all facts which may be developed by experiment or otherwise, 

 and which, through its instrumentality, may be published for the infor- 

 mation of the whole people. The monthly publicatioHS which emanate 

 from the Department, and which are widely circulated among the agri- 

 cultural journals and farmers of the country, keep them advised with 

 icgard to all valuable facts, or even plausible theories, which tend to 

 enlighten the public mind on agricultural subjects. 



A careful study of the organization of this Department has led me 

 to the conclusion that its component parts are judiciously associated 

 and admirably adapted to the promotion and care of the agricultural 

 interests of the country. 



The Chemical Division is constantly engaged in the investigation of 

 subjects of vital importance to the successful and economical operations 

 of the farm. Mineral fertilizers, as they are found in various localities, 

 are analyzed, and their comparative values are ascertained and pointed 

 out. A knowledge of the intrinsic values of vegetable and animal ma- 

 nures is of the first importance in the econ©my of the farm. To know 

 the constituent ])roperties of alkaline deposits, ammoniated bone, and 

 similar substances, greatly conduces to their profitable use. The 

 comparative value of plants, as the same may be found to contain 

 substances usefully employed in the mechanic arts, commands the atten- 

 tion of this division whenever there is a prospect of the development 

 of any neA\' branch of enterprise. The increasing correspondence with 

 this division of the Department very clearly indicates a corresponding- 

 increase in the interest which the farming communities take in the scien- 

 tific phase of their art. 



It is the i)rovince of the Botanical Division to give attention to 

 inquiries for information on questions relating to practical and eco- 

 nomic botany. Many of these questions relate to the nature or quali- 

 ties of various plants; sometimes on account of their prevalence as weeds, 

 which threaten injury; sometimes on account of grasses, which, in cer- 

 tain localities, intrude and extend themselves, and which the farmer is 

 at a loss to know Avhether to regard as a friend or foe; sometimes in 

 relation to plants which have been supposed to ber poisonous; often 

 seeking information as to those best adapted to particular localities, 

 and submitting for examination certain plants Avhich furnish fiber of a 

 character fit for the manufacture of paper or cordage; answers to which 

 put the farmer into the i)OSsession of knowledge which he may turn to a 

 practical and jirofitable account. 



The Division of Entomology covers that great and increasingly im- 

 portant subject of insects injurious to vegetation. There is no subject 

 to which the farmer is so much alive, and in which his apprehensions 



