12 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
and manufacture of this important staple—information which skillful 
chemical analysis can only determine—is necessarily withheld from the 
farmer and the manufacturer solely for the lack of force and facilities in 
the existing laboratory of this department. That the benefits which a 
thoroughly-equipped and sufficiently enlarged Chemical Division would 
confer upon all parts and nearly every industry of the country are not 
exaggerated, will to some extent appear from the following extracts from 
the letters of a few only of the many prominent scientists and distin- 
guished agriculturists which have been addressed to the department 
on this subject. President Folwell, of the University of Minnesota, 
Says: , 
I can only venture to suggest that the department would do well to collate from all 
sources all results of chemical investigations of use to the industrial interests of the 
country and publish them. 
President Arnold, of the Oregon Agricultural College, remarks: 
One thing I greatly desire to see done is this, viz., that some one competent make an 
abstract of all those principles pertaining to agriculture, both physical and chemical, 
upon which all scientific agriculturists are agreed. 
Hon. Stephen L. Goodale, of Maine, for many years secretary of the 
State Board of Agriculture, says: 
The vast benefits conferred by the experimental agricultural stations of Europe upon 
the people of that country, by unlocking stores of hitherto concealed information, 
should furnish hints for the right work here. 
From Professor Seely, secretary of the Vermont Board of Agriculture, 
we read: 
The collation and arrangement of what you have already done would be of the 
greatest value to the country. 
President Welch, of the Agricultural College of Iowa, remarks: 
I have long been of the opinion that the agricultural interests of the country would 
be greatly advanced by a more thorough analysis than has yet been made of the grains, 
grasses, and edible roots, in order to determine the exact value of each in the produc- 
tion of milk, beef, and fiber, or muscular power. Millions of dollars are annually 
wasted by hap-hazard feeding; and what we want, as seems to me, is more precise 
tatements, based on the scientific research of the chemist, as to the use of the various 
foods. ; 
Professor Goessmann, of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, 
writes: 
I believe a thorough examination into the chemical and industrial relations of our 
standard crops a very desirable investigation in the interest of national modes of 
farming. 
Professor Nicholson, in behalf of Professor Holmes, of the University 
of East Tennessee, says: 
A careful determination is needed of the comparative values of the different grades 
of wheat sold in, say, Baltimore or other markets; and, further, as to the chemical dif- 
ferences, if any, between the same variety of wheat grown in Alabama, Georgia, or 
Louisiana and in New England. That there is a practical difference every one knows, 
but precisely upon what it depends remains to be determined. 
