its relation to agriculture which has never been so fully considered as it should be. I mean the probability that irrigation will in the future come to be more or less practical in certain portions of this State. I offer this suggestion because I find it coming to the front occasionally in discussions at agricultural meetings in Pennsylvania. I do not suppose that it will be likely ever to become general, but it may become frequent enough to be important. If it ever should become so, it is to be remembered that just when water would be most needed in the fields it would be lowest in the streams. It should, furthermore, be remembered that forests are the greatest conservators of the water in our streams, and that if the water is to be available for purposes of irrigation in the future, that our growing timber must be protected against fire now. REPORT OF THE MINERALOGIST. BY H. C. DEMMING, Harrisburg, Pa. Gentlemen: The work of the year in Mineralogy has led to some material advancement in the wealth and prosperity of the Commonwealth. The agricultural industry of the State has been benefited in a number of ways, and most directly by a mineralogical examination of soils, which included chemical and microscopical investigation. A farm of 550 acres, within 10 miles of Harrisburg, (owned by Redsecker I. Young, Esq., a member of this Board), was examined geologically and mineralogically, and numerous samples of soils chemically determined, several as to all the constituents, and five times the number as to constituents immediately available for plant growth. The entire farm is placed, by the second geological survey of the State, in the New Red Sand Stone, or Mesozoic Time; but the careful geological examination made last year proves there has been a mistake regarding three-fourths of the farm area; that being underlaid with older rock, evidenced by the large quantities of quartz pebbles found almost everywhere over an area of 400 of the 500 acres. I would class it in the Paleozoic Time, and Lower Silurian Age, much of the broken rock being Potsdam. An analysis of the rock also proves this. The soil, when first taken out, was of a dark brownish color, gradually changing to a yellowish brown. The sample represented an average of the soil from the surface to one foot in depth. During a number of years the crops raised yielded about as follows: Wheat 24 bushels to the acre; corn 80 bushels; oats 20 bushels, and rye about 25 bushels. I will report only one complete quantitative analysis as made in my laboratory,-the soil having been taken up Monday, April 15, 1901, placed in a water-tight receptacle, and the analysis completed September 18, 1901: While the foregoing gave the total constituents of the soil, and revealed everything contained therein, it was necessary to make another analysis of the same soil to ascertain what was immediately available of these various constituents for plant growth. This was done with the utmost care, with the following result: Water, (loss upon ignition, 212 de- 0.6800 per cent. A glance at the two tables will show how very little of even the most abundant constituent is immediately available for plant growth, and how essential it is that some fertilizer be applied to the soil to bring the latent and inactive constituents into active use. Take the very large percentage of silica,-78.375 per cent.,— and of that we found only 0.0028 per cent. immediately available. But some have said that silica is of little use as a plant food. Only a few days ago I examined the soil on the ridge one-half mile north of Mountville, Lancaster county, where the banner tobacco of Pennsylvania is grown, with a much higher percentage of silica; where, under 18 inches of this soil, is a solid bed of sandstone yielding 99.50 per cent. pure silica. The fact is that we do not as yet understand all the physical properties of any element, and something new in the realm of chemistry is being revealed almost every day. It is only a few years ago that it was repeatedly stated to this State Board of Agriculture, that lime was not a fertilizer, but a pulverizer of the soil, which accounted for increased fertility when applied. Now we know that it is not only a pulverizer, but that soils are enriched by it; because by rapidly decomposing all vegetable matter there is formed ammonia for the use of plants. It also sets free the alkalies (potash, soda, etc.,) that are combined in the soil, and furnishes them to the plants, becoming itself a carbonate. On the other hand, we now know that if lime is applied to a compost heap, it will set free the ammonia thus robbing it of its most valuable constituent; but that this robbing can be prevented by sprinkling the pile with dilute sulphuric acid, or plaster, or by mixing it with dry muck, which will absorb the gas. We also know now that if there is any copperas in the soil, (produced by the rusting of iron pyrites,) the lime will decompose it, forming gypsum and iron rust, thus, as Professor J. Dorman Steele found, changing a noxious ingredient into an element of fertility. So much for lime, from the pure calcium carbonate,-not the mixtures that are too often foisted upon our farmers as the "pure article." But I must come back to plain mineralogy;-I am wandering too far into Doctor Frear's realm of chemistry. The mineralogy of soils is most important. With the soils and their double analysis, the owner knows what is lacking, and the remedy can be applied with sure conclusions,-provided, there is proper underdrainage, to guarantee the requisite porosity, and open the way for Nature to bring forth best results. The mineral resources of Pennsylvania are being developed with remarkable advances. Farms which were thought to be worthless, except for good old-fashioned farming, are now producing clays for paper, terra cotta, vitrified bricks, fire bricks, crucibles, and other commodities with amazing steadiness of growth. Earths that were thought to be of little use even for tillage, are now made into compressed peat, umbers, ochers, and mineral paints. Rocks that were eyesores have turned out to be valuable ganisters, or silicates for Dinas bricks, the best the world produces. Kaolins that made low lands almost unbearable for cultivation are now worked into pottery, porcelains and highest grades of China ware; and trees that were fit neither for fences nor fire wood are now sold for manufacture into news and wrapping paper. To particularize, among the findings and developing in the mineral line during the year may be mentioned peat and lignite,—both as substitutes for coal,-in Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Lackawanna, Lawrence and other counties. As the price of coal advances both minerals will more and more share in the natural resources of the State. It is even now stated that peat deposits can be worked, and the product manipulated and put upon the market at the same price as anthracite coal, and with as satisfactory results. Immense deposits of highest grade silica sand have been found. in Lancaster county during the past year, and much atention is being given to the manufacture of porcelain goods by the use of electricity, using the class of sand mentioned. Lower grades of sand, but answering the purpose, are found in almost every county of the State. So peculiarly well adapted are some of these sands for the uses indicated that samples are being asked for by manufacturers in Europe. So with the clays of our State. During nearly 20 years, samples were gathered and analyses made of clays from almost every part of the known world. Hundreds of specimens were analyzed, and comparisons made. After all the research and expenditure of time and money, a clay, the equal of any for finest China ware, was found within 30 miles of Harrisburg. Numerous deposits of clays have been found in Pennsylvania better than the best German, French or English clays, and large shipments will be made this year for foreign account. Over 500 car loads of limestone are quarried in Pennsylvania every working day, and nearly half the number of cement rock. Fifty car loads of limestone are shipped from Blair county alone every 24 hours, or more than 450,000 tons a year. The lands acquired by the State have been found to contain many valuable minerals. The Mont Alto and Caledonia lands have barite, China clay, white flint, rich iron ores and silica sand in abundance. The State lands in Wayne and Pike counties are underlaid in many places with best quality of flagging and curbing stones, and through the lands in Potter township, Pike county, are found a light bluish gray Catskill sandstone that I found, on actual test, would with stand a greater crushing resistance per cubic inch than any stone of any kind, so far as known, in the whole world. How invaluable this will be for heavy foundation walls, and railroad bridge abutments and piers. As to the waters of the State, falling naturally under the domain of mineralogy, permit me to report that more attention is being paid to them as to purity for culinary and drinking purposes, and for water-power to generate electricity, than at any time heretofore in the history of the Commonwealth. Many mineral waters have been found during the year 1901, and some of marked medicinal properties. One company is now preparing an establishment where more electricity will be generated from a fall in the Susquehanna river than is now supplied by the great plant at Niagara Falls. Thus, in many ways, Pennsylvania is being developed for economic purposes from her mineral wealth, and may ere long be the greatest producing State in other lines than coal, iron, petroleum and steel. Minerals that had no commercial value a few years ago are now eagerly sought for, and great forward strides are being made through gigantic investments, not only of our own capital, but capital of other States and countries, seeking safe and profitable investment here. Perhaps one of the most interesting individual discoveries of the year just closed, was the sending in by a poor farmer of a half dozen pieces of broken stone, with the request that somebody examine to find out whether there was something in it. An investigation proved it to be magnesite, worth three time more per ton in a crude state than the best coal ever found in Pennsylvania. Thus, so long as the old farm stands there is hope that good will come some day, if not from sturdy stroke of axe, or plowing deep, from the now seemingly useless and valueless clays or rocks beueath the surface. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LIVE STOCK. BY DR. M. E. CONARD, Chairman, Your committee feel that a report from us at this time upon the live stock of Pennsylvania cannot contain much of importance or information, for it is only one year since we endeavored to report as |