REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 13 
James O, Adams, secretary of the New Hampshire Board of Agricult- 
ure since its organization, writes as follows: 
I find we are obliged to go, in a good degree, to Wolff and other Germans for what 
we want. Their analyses of grasses, &c., are generally the basis. It seems to me we 
ought to have full analyses of our plants, &c., by our own analysts. 
Professor Swallow, of the University of Missouri, says: 
I feel we need, most of all, knowledge of our food products, such as wheat, corn, 
barley, rye, and oats. As we live in the center of the great corn and wheat growing 
region of North America, we have commenced some experiments which we expect to 
continue for years. But we want chemical analyses to finish up our experiments. 
Speaking of the enormous trade in commercial fertilizers, in which 
millions of dollars are annually expended, the Hon. H. Lewis, president 
of the New York State Agricultural Society, writes: 
After giving the subject what attention I could, I have come to the conclusion that 
there is no way in which the Department of Agriculture can aid the farmers of this 
country more than by a careful analysis of the commercial fertilizers sold on the 
market. The use of these fertilizers has become a necessity in all the older States—a 
necessity which is to increase from year to year. There is not one farmer in five hun- - 
dred thousand able to tell their value except by actual trial, and that must be made 
after his money is gone. I hope you will be able to aid us in this matter. 
Prof. John B. Bowman, regent of the University of Kentucky, writes 
that, among other things within the province of the department, 
There remain in the wide field for investigation the various soils, fertilizers, &c., to 
be examined. 
President Phillips, of the University of North Carolina, says: 
It seems to me that you will do our farmers most good by showing them how to de- 
fend themselves against fraud in what they buy as seeds, fertilizers, &c. 
And further: 
T learn from the great smoking-tobacco factory of W. P. Blackwell & Co., at Dur- 
ham, N. C., that there is great room and great need for original chemical research in 
the important work of curing tobacco. 
I might go on with similar quotations from leading citizens in almost 
every section of the country; but why multiply evidence already con- 
elusive of the vast amount of good which the chemical division of this 
department would be capable of performing to a greatly increased ex- 
tent if wider scope were given to its operations by more generous appro- 
priations ? 
The insufiicient force in the laboratory, and the small dimensions of: 
the laboratory itself—two small rooms, a closet, and a small cellar for 
the furnace—has, as we have already seen, greatly hindered the experi- 
ments in the manufacture of tea and sugar inaugurated during the past 
summer and fall. Though defective, from these causes, as the experi- 
ments were, it has been thought advisable to submit them to the public, 
so that whatever hints they may afford to those contemplating an at- 
tempt in these industries the coming season may not be offered too late 
for adoption. It is well known and often remarked by people familiar 
with the facts that there are probabiy five hundred laboratories in the 
colleges and schools throughout the country greatly superior in equip- 
