REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 11 
The high importance of this investigation cannot fail to be appreciated 
by every farmer having cattle to feed or pasture. The Hon. T.C.J ones, 
of Delaware, Ohio, whose judicial fame is not more widely recognized 
than his successful practice in the most advanced agriculture, declared 
in a conversation upon this subject, that nothing was more needed at the 
present, or would be of more value to this country, than a thorough 
analyses of the different grasses now in common use at various points ot 
their growth, and this opinion will be confirmed by every intelligent far- 
mer who will give the subject thoughtful attention. An investigation 
of this character will therefore be entered upon and prosecuted so far as 
the limited means of the department will permit. It is the more impor- 
tant, because of unmistakable indications that the grass lands (upon which 
the agricultural prosperity of the people, in many of the States, wholly 
depends), are becoming, year by year, less productive. It remains to be 
seen whether by the introduction of new varieties and a system of rota- 
tion this exhaustion may not only be arrested, but the crops be increased. 
Attention has been directed also to numerous plants without any rep- 
utation as forage plants, but which, flourishing vigorously upon worn-out 
soils, are looked to as the means of the ultimate restoration of such lands 
to fertility by their employment in green manuring; a method which, 
with clover, rye, buckwheat. and other crops, has been productive of 
such excellent results—an unfailing and inexpensive resource, and often 
the only remedy within the means of the average farmer. ; 
The determination to institute a thorough research in this direction 
has been very much encouraged by a recent conversation with that 
eminent chemist, Dr. St. Julian Ravenel, of Charleston, 8. C. The re- 
sults obtained in some experiments made by him in utilizing the vetch 
and the beggar-lice weed of Florida as preparatory forerunners for a 
crop of wheat in the sandy, barren flats near Charleston are so wonder- 
ful, that the experiments will need to be repeated under personal inspec- 
tion several times before we can feel sure of such favorable results as the 
ustial sequence to such simple means. 
As there could be nothing more important, in an agricultural point of 
view, than a full, careful, and thoroughly scientific examination into the 
chemical composition of the various cereals of the country to determine 
their special qualities and comparative value, whether for the produe- 
tion of tissue, of fat, or of the fermentation-resisting characteristics 
which distinguish the milling products of some grains over others, I had 
directed such examination to be made by the chemist of this depart- 
ment; and the work had already begun when the limited force allowed 
in the chemical division and the more pressing importance of our experi- 
ments with sorghum and maize in the production of sugar (and which 
have just been referred to), made it apparent that investigation in that 
direction would necessarily have to be deferred to a “more convenient 
season.” 
So, too, of tobacco. Much useful information touching both the growth 
