LVITI REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OE AGRICULTURE. 



able demands which may be made for the extension of the work within 

 the limits of the appropriation by Congress. 



In our laboratories the problems of soil physics and soil chemistry 

 are being intelligently studied and in certain lines effectually solved, 

 but it is perhaps in our tobacco experiments that we have achieved 

 the most striking results, measured by the immediate effects upon the 

 cultivator and by the appreciation of the public. These experiments 

 are based upon the soil survey, and they justify by their results the 

 confident statement, as anyone who carefully reads this report can 

 see, that what has already been done, to say nothing of what we hope 

 to do in the future, has laid the foundation of added wealth to tobacco 

 growers in this country aggregating yearly far more than the entire 

 cost of the Division of Soils since its establishment. 



With such results as have been already achieved we can certainly 

 look forward with the utmost confidence to the results to be obtained 

 by the Bureau of Soils with the larger appropriation and additional 

 equipment which have been, and which may be, provided by the far- 

 sighted liberality of Congress. 



BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY. 



Chemistry is a science which touches every branch of agriculture. 

 In the organic act establishing the Department of Agriculture, among 

 the scientific advisers which the Commissioner of Agriculture was 

 authorized to appoint, a chemist was first mentioned. The Bureau of 

 Chemistry is the natural outgrowth of the Division of Chemistry, 

 which was the first scientific office established at the time of the 

 organization of the Department in 1862. The work of this branch of 

 the scientific service has gradually extended until it has reached its 

 present proportions. Gradually the chemical work of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has come to be regarded as the most important 

 of all the chemical work for the Government. The scope of the work 

 at the present time, together with the relations which have been estab- 

 lished b}^ it with other Departments of the Government, can best be 

 illustrated by a brief statement of the nature of 'the investigations 

 which have been conducted during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1901. 

 During that period there were received for examination or analysis in 

 the Division of Chemistry 3,824 samples of all kinds. 



ADULTERATION OF FOOD PRODUCTS. 



The subjects of investigation have been, first, the study of the com- 

 position, nutritive value, and adulteration of food products. The work 

 of the year has been devoted particularly to the study of preserved 

 meats, with a view of comparing the preserved article with the origi- 





