But, while we indulge in these pleasant reflections, let us not think of saying that our work is done, and that we shall rest on the laurels won. Happily no disposition to do.this has been shown. Almost every year has witnessed some addition to the scope of our work. Last year the very important and difficult subject of the analysis of soils was taken up, a subject that needs very much such an organization as ours to make its methods practically useful, if they can be made so at all. I have faith that they can be made useful, at any rate in connection with field experiments with fertilizers.

New methods of estimating the constituents found in our agricultural materials and products are continually coming out. We should take into consideration such as are most promising, to learn whether they may not be useful to us. I would call attention especially to a method for phosphoric acid, heartily indorsed by some of the best iron chemists, in which, with the aid of a centrifugal machine, the amount of molyb date precipitate is determined in a very brief time by its volume. Certainly a method for phosphorus that will satisfy iron chemists is worth our consideration if we can gain anything by its use. Ulsche's new method for nitrates in fertilizers has been most heartily recommended to agricultural chemists in a very recent paper by such good authorities as Alberts and Hempel.

By thus appropriating from other departments of technical analysis whatever may help us, after subjecting it to our own rigorous system of testing, and holding fast to all that is good either in old methods or in new ones, being thus always both duly conservative and vigorously progressive, we shall serve our own purposes best, and we may reasonably hope perhaps to attain such a degree of importance that no more books on technical analysis will be published even in Germany entirely ignoring our work or our existence.

It would be ungrateful if in this connection I should not mention the assistance which has been afforded by the Department of Agriculture to this association, in making its history. It has given us a comfortable place for our meetings, provided us with all the needed facilities. for recording our deliberations, and more than all for the publication of our annual reports. I am safe in saying, I think, that if out of our own pockets, or by begging others for means, we had been obliged to provide all that the Department has provided for us, we should have fallen far short of what we have actually accomplished. And to this should be added the recognition of the services in our behalf of that particular representative of the Department, our present secretary, who has been from the first one of our coworkers, and through whose instrumentality all this valuable assistance has come.

The PRESIDENT. The next thing in the order of business is the report of Prof. Rising, on fermented liquors. Prof. Rising, we all regret, can not be present, and his report will be read by the secretary.

Mr. Wiley, after reading a telegram from Prof. Rising expressing regret on account of his enforced absence this year, read that gentleman's report, as follows:

REPORT ON ANALYSIS OF FERMENTED LIQUORS.

By W. B. RISING.

As reporter on methods of "analysis of fermented liquors," I beg leave to submit the following report:

It was my privilege last year to visit a large number of wine chemists in Europe, and to have full and free discussions with them upon many points connected with wine analysis. The one wish, expressed by nearly every chemist consulted, was for a uniform method of wine analysis to be adopted by all who make wine analyses, so that their results can be compared. Especially is such uniformity of method wanted by a country exporting wine. The wine will be judged by the standard of the country into which it is imported, hence the necessity of uniform methods of examination. I think it not too much to say that the conclusions of the imperial "Health Bureau" (Gesundheits-Amt) are universally accepted, and that the deviations from them by individual chemists are fewer and fewer each year. In the list of determinations which are given below I have returned in many cases to the methods of the Berlin commission, for the sake of conforming to the world's methods.

In respect of specific gravity I prefer 15° C. to 25° C., adopted by the association two years ago, for the general reason that it is the world method, and recommend that 15 C. be adopted as the standard temperature for that determination.

In estimating extract I recommend that 50 cc. of wine (at 15° C.)—in case of sweet wines a less amount-be evaporated in a platinum dish 85 mm. in diameter, 20 mm. high, and of 75 cc. content, upon a water bath. The residue is heated two and onehalf hours in a drying oven at 100° C.

(In sweet wines, i. e., such containing more thau .5 gr. of sugar in 100 cc. of wine, a lesser amount of wine is to be taken and diluted to 50 cc.; 1 gr. or at most 1.5 gr. of extract represents the maximum.)

The rest of Mr. Rising's report consisted in submitting without change the remaining parts of the methods of last year. These are printed under "Methods of Analysis."

The president stated that any other papers on this subject would come next in order. Discussion of the report was invited.

Mr. CRAMPTON. This matter of the control of wines and alcoholic beverages has lately become an important matter, at least with some of us. I am the chemist of the Internal Revenue, and the subject has lately become one of official control. The act of Congress approved October 1, 1890, which some of you may be familiar with under the name of the McKinley bill, allows of the fortification of sweet wines by the addition of alcohol-grape brandy-which can be withdrawn free of tax within certain limits; that is, it allows certain wines, those containing at least 4 per cent of sugar, to be fortified with grape brandy to an extent not to exceed 24 per cent of alcohol in the finished product, and with an addition of not more than 14 per cent, so that this is now a matter of official control, and this makes it important for us to have methods which may be adopted by this association which we can utilize in our work. The methods as given by the association provide for the

complete analysis of wines and of alcoholic beverages, and are very good. Those which were adopted by the association last year were used in the Internal Revenue laboratory through the year in making analyses of wines under the provisions of the act; but we are obliged to provide in our office for the analysis of wines by rough methods. In order to ascertain whether a wine is competent to be fortified, it must be ascertained whether that wine conforms to the provi sions of the act. Therefore we have adopted some rough methods for the estimation of alcohol and of sugar, which have been incorporated in the regulations of the U. S. Internal Revenue Office. I think it would be competent for this association to adopt these in addition to the methods recommended by the reporter, inasmuch as they are official methods, aud it will doubtless add force to them to some extent to be adopted and placed among the methods used by this association. I have not a copy of the regulations with me, but I move that these rough methods for the estimation of sugar and alcohol in sweet wines be incorporated with the methods given by the reporter, if this is the proper place to make such a recommendation.

The PRESIDENT. It is moved that the rough methods mentioned by MI. Crampton for determining the amount of sugar and alcohol in sweet wines be incorporated in the methods adopted by the association. Is that motion seconded, in order to bring it before the association? The motion was seconded.

The PRESIDENT. It is now before the meeting for discussion. Are there any remarks?

Mr. PAYNE. The gentleman has just spoken of rough methods. I should like to know whether he means approximate methods.

Mr. CRAMPTON. Yes, sir. I would like to say that I would be glad to hear from any gentleman here on this subject of the analysis of alcoholic beverages. It is, of course, one not of so much general interest, as others, to the association.

The PRESIDENT. The chair would like to make one remark before proceeding to discussion. It is customary that all motions should be handed to the chair before they are stated to the meeting. I shall be obliged to ask that we go on in accordance with that common practice. Mr. FREAR. I consider Mr. Crampton to be an exceedingly careful analyst, and have no doubt that the methods proposed by him are entirely adequate for the purpose, but I question the policy of adopting methods without knowing what they are, and I think the association should wait long enough to have them read before taking final action. Mr. PAYNE. As a substitute for the motion before the association I move that the methods referred to be submitted to a committee, who should go over them and submit them to the association, in writing, for its action. Carried.

The PRESIDENT. I will name the committee later, and ask if there are any further remarks to be made on the report on the analysis of fermented liquors.

Mr. WILEY. I desire to call attention to the fact that Mr. Rising has referred in his report to a great many processes with which the members of the association are not familiar, and suggest that it would be well for the secretary to ask him to supply an outline of the methods referred to, not in common use, to be included in the report.

The PRESIDENT. It is important to have a careful description of these methods of analysis, and no objection being expressed, the secretary will make such request of Mr. Rising.'

Mr. LUPTON. I move that the report be accepted and adopted by the association.

At the suggestion of the president action was deferred until the committee could report on the other methods, when all could be adopted together.

Mr. Cooke presented the following report on dairy products:

REPORT ON DAIRY PRODUCTS.

By W. W. COOKE.

The cooperative work among the members of this association during the past years ip the line of dairy products has been confined to butter and butter substitutes. For this reason it seemed best that the work this year should be on milk.

The first sample was sent out in February. It was a sample of whole milk that was brought to the station as soon as milked, cooled in ice water, thoroughly mixed, and put into pint glass fruit jars, the jars being filled to prevent churning of fat by agitation while on the road. The jars were sent by express the same day to all the experiment stations in New England and the Middle States, with a letter requesting them to analyze the sample for total solids, fat, and nitrogen, reporting methods used in the determinations.

Reports on the analysis of samples were received from the Maine Experiment Station, J. M. Bartlett; New Hampshire Experiment Station, F. W. Morse and C. L. Parsons; Massachusetts State Experiment Station, C. A. Goessmann; Connecticut State Experiment Station, E. H. Jenkins; Connecticut Experiment Station at Storrs, C. D. Woods; New York State Experiment Station, L. L. Van Slyke and W. H. Whalen; New Jersey Experiment Station, C. A. Cathcart; Vermont Experiment Station, J. L. Hills and B. O. White.

All of the chemists say that the sample arrived in good condition and was analyzed at once while it was still sweet. The following table gives the results as they were reported:

In accordance with this action Mr. Rising was requested to furnish a description of the methods referred to in his report, but up to the time of going to press no response has been received.

The methods employed by the analysts were as follows:

Maine, Mr. Bartlett: Total solids by drying in air two and one-half hours at the temperature of boiling water; fat by the Babcock whirling method as described in Bulletin 24 of the Wisconsin Experiment Station; nitrogen by Kjeldahl.

New Hampshire, Mr. Morse: Total solids, on sand in a porcelain crucible, dried for two and one-half hours in the air bath at 105° C.; fat determined in this residue by trausferring to a Mohr's extractor aud treating for four hours with Squibbs ether, purified over calcium chloride, the extract dried for two hours in the air bath at 105° C.; nitrogen by Kjeldahl, evaporating to dryness before the addition of the acid; ash by evaporating over a low flame with the addition of nitric acid; specific gravity by Westphal balance.

New Hampshire, Mr. Parsons: Total solids same as Mr. Morse; fat the same, except that it was extracted for two hours; nitrogen by Kjeldahl without evaporation; ash the same but ignited in a muffle; specitic gravity by the Westphal balance. Fat was also determined by the Beimling method as described in Bulletin 21 of the Vermont Experiment Station, and four days after, when the sample was sour, fat was determined in it by the Parsons method, as described in the first report of the New Hampshire Experiment Station.

Massachusetts, Mr. Goessmann: Total solids, evaporated on sand in porcelain dish and dried to constant weight in air bath at 100° to 105° C.; fat was determined by two 12202-No. 31- -2