Investigations of the chinch bug have been extended in certain Western States, in coöperation with the Department, and facts of practical value, bearing upon the relations of agricultural methods and climate to the propagation of the chinch bug, have been ascertained.

The insect enemies of the orange and other citrus fruits have been diligently studied, and much valuable material collected for an additional report upon this subject. In harmony with the provisions of the appropriation bill, cotton insects have been the subject of much research. Inquiries were made in the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, where results of practical value have been reached.

A new and very active enemy of the cotton crop has been discovered recently in Texas, where it was introduced from Mexico. It is in the shape of a weevil, which bores into the bolls. The study of this insect has been begun. A special agent was sent to the agricultural sections of Mexico recently opened up by railways, who has forwarded to the Division of Entomology many interesting specimens and many valuable data which will serve to familiarize the people with other injurious insects which are liable to be imported from Mexico to the United States.

The experimental work against predaceous and destructive insects has been continued, mainly in the line of testing new machinery and in determining the effects of insecticide mixtures upon the foliage of plants at different seasons, and in determining the usefulness of these insecticides against the new peach scale and the San Jose or pernicious scale of fruit trees above referred to. The publication of a series of leaflets or circulars upon insects especially dangerous to horticulture has been commenced. A manual of bee culture is completed, and one bulletin has been contributed to the series of the division and another to the series of the farmers' bulletins.

DIVISION OF VEGETABLE PATHOLOGY.

The diligent study of the diseases of cereal crops and fruits has been continued by this division during the entire year. Recognizing the vast value of the cereal crops produced in this country, and the immense losses accruing to them because of the attacks of certain diseases, particularly rusts and smuts, an expert investigator was appointed early in the year to take charge of this particular line of inquiry.

In the laboratory of the division at Washington, pear blight, diseases affecting the melons of the South, diseases of cereals, and diseases of fruits of the Pacific coast and of Florida, have been investigated. It has been ascertained that a simple and inexpensive treatment used early in the spring will almost completely hold in check a disease of the leaves of the peach tree which has recently damaged fruitgrowers many thousands of dollars. The remedy has been tested among

the peach orchards of California and the eastern portion of the United States and has proven highly efficacious. Several other diseases of plants and fruit trees are now under investigation with excellent probabilities of discovering a successful remedy. A branch station of this division in Florida is particularly devoting itself to the study of the diseases of citrus fruits and other subtropical plants.

DIVISION OF ORNITHOLOGY AND MAMMALOGY.

The work of this division divides itself into two attractive subjects. The first is the geographic distribution of animals, and the second the study of injurious and useful birds and mammals. Under the first head enough data have now been collected to finally solve the problem of temperature control of the geographic distribution in North America of animals and plants. Their laws of distribution have been formulated, and the result of the investigation will be published in a few months. The study of life zones has extended over large areas in the West. The field work bas covered twenty-five (25) States and Territories west of the Mississippi River, and also embraced Pennsylvania and three of the Southern States.

Two groups of mammals very injurious to agriculture, the California jack rabbit and the pocket gopher of the plains and the Mississippi Valley, have received attention during the year. An exhaustive study has been made of the pocket gopher, the results of which will appear in a popular bulletin on his food habits, his injury to crops, and the methods of extermination.

During the inquiry into the food of birds and mammals, three thousand four hundred and twenty (3,420) stomachs of birds were added to the collection, and fourteen hundred and forty (1,440) of them were carefully examined. The stomachs of many mammals were dissected in the laboratory and in the field. A report on the food habits of the kingbird, with special reference to its habits relating to agriculture and horticulture, has been prepared. There has also been completed a leaflet on the food habits of the woodpecker, and a similar one on the food habits of blackbirds.

Some species of beautifully plumaged and useful birds are being exterminated in the United States to satisfy the barbaric demand for ornithological ornamentation of feminine head wear. By educating the public mind to a better understanding of birds, their interesting habits and uses to man, this division is doing much to prevent this and other similarly cruel and senseless practices which, if not arrested, will result in the total destruction of many of our most beautiful and useful American birds.

The eminent scientist at the head of this division, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, and his capable assistant, have been, by order of the President, placed in the classified service.

DIVISION OF BOTANY.

During 1894 a great amount of agitation and some trepidation has existed in certain Northwestern States relative to the Russian thistle and its possible detrimental and universal dissemination throughout the Northwest. The Division of Botany, therefore, made a special effort to systematically collect information as to this newly arrived emigrant weed and to provide methods for its speedy repressment and eradication. One result of this inquiry is that the seeds of new grasses and forage plants from abroad will be hereafter, for the public protection, very carefully inspected as to their freedom from weed seeds. If possible, it might be well to require certification as to freedom from weed seeds and absolute purity and vitality of all seeds imported into the United States. A laboratory has been equipped and a special assistant detailed to give his entire time to the study of seeds with regard to their purity, vitality, and improvement.

The census of 1890 shows the value of farms in the United States which are entirely devoted to seed-growing to be over eighteen millions of dollars ($18,000,000). The export of clover seed alone during the year ending June 30, 1894, is estimated at four million five hundred and forty thousand dollars ($4,540,000). The export of American seeds may be vastly increased by exalting the standard of purity and germinating vitality and giving all other peoples the same guaranty that we ask of them. The same course will increase the domestic use of American-grown seed. When information as to its high quality has been diffused, this course will vastly widen the world markets for American seed and so enhance their value by giving increasing demand everywhere.

DIVISION OF FORESTRY.

The greater part of the appropriation for the Division of Forestry has been expended during the present year in investigating the strength of different timber woods and the conditions that influence their quality. The importance of such an inquiry was pointed out in the Report of the Secretary of Agriculture for 1893. Attention was also called to the unqualified commendations which had been bestowed upon this work not only in the United States but in foreign countries. The full value of the investigation will not be apparent until it has been carried to a successful termination, when the accumulated data will be carefully collated, with the intent of discovering the laws which give different degrees of strength to different varieties of timber. A knowledge of such laws will make the everyday use of timber in building much safer and more satisfactory than it has been. The financial and economic value of these timber examinations can hardly be estimated at the present moment.

The practice of "boxing" pine trees for turpentine, it has been discovered, does not decrease the strength of the lumber. This discovery

alone, it is stated, will add two millions of dollars to the value of the pineries of the Southern States, which are being "bled" for turpentine. It is further established that the longleaf pine of the South is generally far stronger than heretofore admitted, and, therefore, for structures like bridges, trestles, and rooftrees made of this timber, it is prac ticable to effect a saving of 25 per cent of material without reducing the factor of safety. This saving applies to about two million M. feet of longleaf pine timber annually used for such purposes, and the present money value of that saving of longleaf pine lumber can be calculated at six millions of dollars ($6,000,000). These facts may render possible the extension of the time in which our forest supplies of this most valuable timber must be exhausted. This line of work, which establishes the true value of our varieties of timber, should be pushed to a conclusion as rapidly as possible. Therefore it has been recommended that Senate bill No. 313, making a special appropriation of forty thousand dollars ($40,000) for the completion of this work, be passed whenever the people seem to demand it and the condtion of the public Treasury may permit such an expenditure.

Inquiry into the rate of growth and production of the most valuable lumber trees is needed in order to properly estimate the profit that may be derived from forest management. Only the white pine and the black spruce have so far been partly examined. But the information obtained is so valuable that it makes more apparent than ever the necessity of similar investigations upon other timber trees. Inquiries have been made, and are in progress, as to the principles and effectiveness of dry kilns for lumber, and also as to the increase in the use of metal for railroad ties and other processes of economy in the use of wood for railroad construction.

Popular instruction as to the disastrous results upon adjacent agricultural valleys of the denudation of hills and mountains, should be given in every schoolhouse in the Union. Prof. Rothrock, of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Fernow, the chief of the Division of Forestry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, have shown themselves efficient teachers and workers in this regard. The deforestation of the American Continent will practically be an accomplished fact within another century unless systematic and intelligent reafforestation be speedily inaugurated.

DIVISION OF CHEMISTRY.

The Division of Chemistry, in harmony with the provisions of the appropriation act, has during the past year devoted itself to the investigation of the adulteration of foods, drugs, and liquors, and to the prosecution of experiments in sugar production. Examinations for the usual adulterations have been made of large numbers of specimens of meals, flours, and breads; but in no instance has there been found an adulteration of American flour with terra alba or any other material. It

is gratifying to know withal, that while this sort of adulteration is practiced largely in foreign countries, it has not obtained foothold in the United States. The only deceptions in the flour trade have been found in the substitution of cheaper grades for dearer ones. In bread the chief adulterant found has been alum. That substance is added for the purpose of whitening the loaf.

Wines have been examined very thoroughly; especially have adul terants been sought for in the coloring matter used. It is impossible to tell by chemical analysis whether any given amount of alcohol found in wines is natural or artificial. The Division of Chemistry has ascertained that the pure wines of the United States and the pure wines produced in Europe are not very dissimilar in many cases. Where there are differences, they have been carefully determined and defined. The chemical examinations of the typical soils of the United States have been commenced, and a series of pot experiments have been begun, having for their object the practical test of the several methods of analysis heretofore adopted and the actual powers of plants to assimilate different kinds of food in the soil. It is sought in this way to learn approximately the available plant food in each type of soil. In conjunction with this, a thorough study of the nitrifying organisms of the soils has also been commenced. In addition to the above work, numerous inquiries as to the methods of analysis have been carried out, and a great number of miscellaneous samples have been analyzed.

DIVISION OF POMOLOGY.

During the year Mr. S. B. Heiges, of Pennsylvania, a horticulturist of long experience and of practical skill, was made chief of the division, and it is to-day in better working order than ever before since its creation. By order of the President it has been placed wholly in the classified civil service, from the chief and assistant chief down to the messengers.

The division is principally engaged in correspondence with fruitgrowers; in critical examination and comparison of specimen fruits received from them for identification, description, and illustration of such specimens as may seem worthy of record and propagation. All new and improved varieties of this sort are modeled and colored.

During the year close attention has been given to the investigation of the varieties of the apple. Notwithstanding the almost total failure of the crop, some two hundred (200) specimens of new or littleknown varieties of apples-some of which promise to be very valuable—have been received. Beside these many old varieties which had been catalogued and planted as new have been identified as to their origin and character.

The damaging frosts of the last week in March were made the subject of investigation during the month of April, and the results were published in a special circular with the report of the Statistician for May. Important facts were developed in the course of this inquest which will