PREFACE. DURING the session of the Legislature of 1857-58, it was deemed expedient to revise the law regulating public printing, more particularly with a view to authorize the publication of public documents in a larger sized type. So far as the publication of the Agricultural Reports were concerned, the committees on Printing, from both branches of the Legislature, selected from among the various Agricultural Reports of the several States submitted to them, a Report of Massachusetts as a model in type, size, and style of binding, for the future Reports of Ohio. The present volume is printed on the same sized type, and is of the same form as that of Massachusetts; but the latter contains 736 pages only, while this contains 824. The larger number of pages in the present Report is to be attributed to the fact that it was impossible to estimate precisely the amount which the manuscript would make. Several articles, which were prepared with great care, were necessarily postponed; among the more important of these is an elaborate essay on the "CLIMATOLOGY OF THE STATE OF Oшо," embracing all the results of records made in the State so far as they could be obtained, either in manuscript from the observers themselves, or from publications; also an essay on the "INFLUENCE OF FORESTS UPON CLIMATE;" the "Natural History of Fishes in Ohio;" a catalogue of indigenous plants in Franklin and Fairfield counties; together with other papers of more or less importance, contributed by gentlemen whose competency and scientific attainments are undoubted. The essay on the origin, varieties, diseases, &c., of wheat, has extended to a much greater length than was originally contemplated, partially in consequence of the detailed description and history of the varieties grown. in Ohio, and partially in consequence of the extended descriptions of insects, &c., which affect the wheat plant. The entire essay partakes necessarily more of the character of a compilation than an original composition; and in defense of any views therein advanced, the writer can only say that he invariably was guided by what he considered the best and most reliable authorities. Among the authorities consulted were the agricultural periodicals generally, published in the United States; the Agricultural Reports of the several States, together with those of England, Scotland, and the several States of Continental Europe. Of standard works, MORTON'S Encyclopedia of Agriculture; LIEBIG's Agricultural Chemistry; STOECKHARDT'S Chemistry, and Chemical Field Lectures; ABEL'S Aus der Natur; METZGER'S Europaisch Cerealen; KONIG'S Nuetzlichsten Getreidenarten, and Futter and Wiesenkreuter; FITCH'S Noxious Insects; BAZIN sur le Cecidomyie tritici; UNGER'S Botanische Briefe; MOLESCHOTT'S Kreislauf des Lebens, and Physiologie des Stoffwaechsels; LouDON'S Encyclopedia of Agriculture; THAER'S Principles of Agriculture; C. W. JOHNSTON's American Farmer's Encyclopedia of Agriculture; English Encyclopedia of Natural History; CARPENTER'S Vegetable Physiology; Journal d'Agriculture Pratique; Revue Horticole; Le Bon Jardinier; Entomologische Zeitung (Stettin); Memoires Academie de Metz; Mittheilung der Russischen Oekonomische Gesellschaft zu St. Petersburg; together with others of less note. JOHN H. KLIPPART STATE AGRICULTURAL ROOMS, Columbus, O., Oct., 1858. |