92 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
and soil, that the results of their examination may naturally be expected 
to lead to some insight into the effect of such conditions upon vegetable 
growth and nutritive value. 
For the careful and uninterrupted conduct of these inquiries it was 
found necessary during the year to fit up a small laboratory to be spe- 
cially devoted to this object, and which has been made as complete as 
the limited appropriation would‘ allow. The services of an additional 
assistant have been secured to commence the work, who has been occupied 
since September last with the necessary preparations for so large an 
undertaking. Those who are engaged in the examination of vegetable 
substances by proximate analysis know how unsatisfactory and con- 
flicting even the best systems adopted by the most eminent chemists 
are, and how imperfectly the present knowledge and chemical literature 
afford guides for the rapid and accurate performance of this, probably 
the most extensive work of the kind ever attempted. Even the most 
accurate researches made upon plants in German schools, and to be 
found only in certain European journals, show us the incomplete and 
unsatisfactory condition in which proximate analysis stands at this time. 
The most recent examinations made upon cereals, either in this country 
or abroad, leave very much to be desired both as regardsexactness and 
comprehensiveness. As an illustration, the methods for the determina- 
tion of starch, gum, cellulose, &c., are exceedingly unsatisfactory and 
inexact, partly owing to the adoption of imperfect processes, and partly 
to the assuming of the proportions of some “by difference,” results from 
which modes disfigure even the most recent investigations. 
A portion of the time of the assistant detailed for this work has been 
expended in the experimental comparison of various processes used in 
some of these determinations, with the view of arriving at results from 
which a general scheme of work may be deduced. 
Among the analytical work done in the laboratory, somé few instances 
are found possessing a generalinterest. I therefore select them for such 
remark as seems indicated, leaving the mass of our work in this diree- 
tion without further detailing it. 
ARACHIS HYPOGHA—GROUND NUT—PEANUT. 
Mr. Thomas S. Pleasants, of Petersburg, Virginia, in a paper on the 
diversity of vegetable productions—reference being chiefly made to 
their suitability tor that State—published in the Annual Report of this 
Department for 1867, has called attention to the value of this plant as 
an article of food suitable for cultivation in the southern counties of 
Virginia, and states (p. 252) that under careful and judicious manage- 
ment it will yield fifty or sixty, or from that to eighty bushels, per acre, 
worth from $1 50 to $2 50 per bushel. The market price at this time 
is $2 25. As there are many portions of other States equally favorably 
situated for the growth of this plant, and as many applications have 
been made to the Department to ascertain what mineral elements were 
necessary for its successful growth, an analysis of the husk and nut was 
made, with the following result: 
1. Husk and nut in 100 parts— 
Winters eee = en cco ose te rh oks cece ee ole eee eee 2. 60 
Albuminous and fibrous matters and. starch.......--e cs eeee ee~- -s- ++ oe oe eee 79, 26 
OE Pe ne eee can bokcee cece sl eee SS eee 16. 00 
Ash. 655 ee ces oo Lethe 5. oc ee eee 2. 00 
GBS 5 ee ee isc Sct nc dais ck eee ae ee ee eee 0.14 
