MELVILLE BULL, Secretary and Treasurer, P. O., Newport, R. I. The publications of the station will be mailed free "to such individuals actually engaged in farming as may request the same." The station desires the co-operation of the farmers of the State in the work of investigation, and any facts concerning unusual animal or vegetable growth or disease, are solicited. Visitors are always welcome. Railroad station, telegraph, express and post office, Kingston, Rhode Island. REPORT. To His Excellency, H. W. Ladd, Governor, and the Honorable, the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island, at its January Session, 1890: KINGSTON, Jan. 31st. The Board of Managers of the Rhode Island State Agricultural School and Experiment Station present their Second Annual Report in two parts, the first relating to the State Agricultural School and the second to the State Agricultural Experiment Station. The reason for so doing may be found in Part First, to which the reader is referred. This report includes the five bulletins issued during the year, the reports of the Director, Horticulturist, Chemist and Apiarist for the year ending December 31st, 1889, the financial statement of the Treasurer for the year ending June 30, 1889, to which is appended a general list of the stock, teams, tools, scientific instruments and apparatus, bees, hives, trees, plants, etc., purchased for the use and work of the Station. Early in the year Mr. L. F. Kinney, B. S., Assistant at the Hatch Experiment Station, Amherst, Mass., was engaged to take charge of the horticultural work of the Station and commenced his duties at the Farm March 1st. During this month a meteorological outfit was purchased, a slat building prepared for the thermometer and barometer and on April 1st a record commenced of observations taken thrice daily, which it is proposed to continue indefinitely. A summary of the records forms a part of bulletin No. 5. Prof. Kinney has taken most of the observations, superintended the planting and care of the nursery and vegetable garden and faithfully executed the details of the potato experiment, which forms the subject of bulletin No. 5. The Board also engaged Mr. H. J. Wheeler, then pursuing special studies in Chemistry and Geology at Göttingen, Germany, as Station Chemist, his duties to begin at the Farm September 1st. Meanwhile, two thousand dollars was placed at his disposal with instructions to purchase in Europe the apparatus and outfit necessary for work in his division. This was done as a matter of economy, it being possible to lawfully import them for the use of the institution duty free, and hence quite a saving resulted. Dr. Wheeler, with five years post graduate practical experience in the laboratory of the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station and the opportunities afforded by his two years' study in Germany to become familiar with the work of the best European investigators, is able to bring to his work much valuable information, which we trust will eventually be of benefit to the State. Early in the spring the Board appropriated the sum of five hundred dollars for the purpose of establishing an apiary and collection of specimen hives and bee supplies. While the natural conditions in this State are such that wholesale honey production may never be profitable, it is believed that the keeping of a few colonies of bees may be profitable to many farmers, and incidentally result in profit to the agriculturist through the better fertilization of fruit and berry blossoms. The thorough, practical experience in his own apiaries, joined to an enthusiastic interest in his work and some little reputation as a writer upon the subject of bee-keeping, led the Board of Managers to place this division in charge of Mr. |