1898.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 5 



has been made ; " Nitragin " has again been tried, with neg- 

 ative results ; and an interesting test has been carried on of 

 twenty varieties of corn, eighty-one of potatoes, sixty of 

 grasses, twenty-one of millets and four of clover. 



In the division of chemistry (fertilizers), aside from the 

 six hundred analyses of licensed fertilizers and manurial 

 substances, valuable work has been done for the tobacco- 

 growers of the Connecticut valley in the analyses of tobacco 

 leaves grown with different fertilizers, testing of the quality 

 of ash and burning quality, and suggestions as to methods 

 of planting, fertilizers to be employed and mechanical prep- 

 aration of the soil. 



In the botanical division, investigations have been carried 

 on of the brown rot of stone fruit, the chrysanthemum rust, 

 the leaf blights of certain native trees, as the sycamore, 

 butternut, chestnut and black cherry, with recommendations 

 of treatment for the brown rot and chrysanthemum rust. 



The horticultural division has continued its work of test- 

 ing varieties of fruit and seeds of vegetables, and has entered 

 upon an investigation of the use of hydrocyanic acid as an 

 insecticide. 



From the entomological division have issued two impor- 

 tant bulletins on the habits, food and economic value of the 

 American toad and the brown-tail moth. A monograph on 

 the plume-moths (some varieties of which attack plants of 

 economic value and those raised for ornamental purposes) 

 has been completed. The superiority of spraying for the 

 canker worm over ink bands and oil troughs has been dem- 

 onstrated, and investigations carried on of new insecticides 

 with which to assail the gypsy moth. 



A series of observations for the electrical determination 

 of moisture in the soil, in connection with the growth 

 of corn, were undertaken by the meteorological division. 

 Owing to breaks in the circuit and other causes that made 

 the instrument fail to work, and the abnormally wet weather 

 of the summer, the results were not entirely satisfactory, 

 and the observation's will be repeated the coming season. 



Three investigations in the division of foods and feeding 

 are worthy of special note : (a) On the comparative values 



