FINANCIAL REPORT.

The Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station in account with the United States, 1889:

OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION OF THE STATE OF NEVADA.

To the Honorable Board of Control-GENTLEMEN: The year covered by this report has been filled with events of the greatest importance to the Agricultural Experiment Station of the State of Nevada. The State Legislature of 1889 passed an Act under which the complete organization of the Station was effected. The said Act provided

that the Board of Control of the Agricultural Experiment Station shall consist of the three Regents of the State University, thereby forming what is most likely to be a permanent union between the Station and the chief educational institution of Nevada. The Congress of the United States in February, 1889, created the Department of Agriculture, the head of which is a member of the President's Cabinet, thereby exalting the chief industry of the country to the high position which it has ever deserved. Within this year the Board of Control has employed a Vice-Director, a Farmer, a Superintendent of the Mechanical Department, a Superintendent of Field Experiments, and a Chemist, and it took the steps that led to the employment of an Entomologist and Botanist immediately after the close of the year. The increased prosperity of the University made it necessary that Prof. W. McN. Miller should be relieved of his work as Chemist and Botanist to the Experiment Station in order that all his time might be occupied with professional duties. The employment of the Hon. H. L. Fish as Vice-Director was deemed advisable for the reason that the Board of Control desired the valuable services of the Regent residing in Reno, in the supervision of the Experiment Station building and grounds.

The character of this additional work made the employment of the other members of the Station Staff necessary. The Station work carried on during the past year has been chiefly in the direction of field and garden experiments. The recording and reporting of meteorological phenomena, as observed at the Station, has been carefully and thoroughly done. (See Bulletins 2, 3, 4 and 5.) The Farmer also has had the oversight of those employed on the grounds, but had a busy and a successful year, as the improved appearance of the roads, walks, lawns, garden and grass plots attest. The Superintendent of the Mechanical Department has been fully occupied. during that portion of his time not devoted to his duties as an instructor. The Library has grown into respectable dimensions, and some valuable additions have been made to the Cabinet of the Station. Quarterly publications of the Station have been made. Those thus far have been chiefly devoted to meteorology, as has been indicated, and much material has already been collected for a number of valuable publications relating to the agricultural and horticultural resources of Nevada, as well as to such related subjects as entomology, botany, and the chemical analysis of soils, food stuffs etc. The call for bulletins is steadily increasing, there being about 1,500 names on our mailing list.

THE EXPERIMENT STATION BUILDING.

This building was planned and its construction began within the year covered by the present report. It is a fine brick structure, 30x45 feet, containing eleven rooms, now occupied wholly by the members of the Station Staff and the Board of Control. A complete

description of the Station Building properly belongs to the annual report for the year 1890.

The field work done at the Station may be classified under the following headings:

I. General field work in the cultivation of different varieties of farm and garden crops.

First-The field work prosecuted during the last season has been confined almost altogether to the cultivation of grasses and forage plants and garden vegetables. Thirty-five plots, most of them consisting of one-fortieth acre each, have been seeded to grasses and various other forage plants, including some common and other more rare grasses, and some forage plants recommended as suitable for arid districts. The other principal crops consisted of twenty-two varieties of sorghum; sweet corn, to the cultivation of which twelve plots were devoted; fifty-two plots were given to varieties and cultivation of peas; thirty plots of beans were grown; sixty-six plots were given to varieties and dates of planting radishes; twelve plots of lettuce were grown and fifteen plots of cucumbers. In addition there were a number of plots of potatoes, barley, Kaffir corn, melons, turnips, A collection of ornamental plants was received from the National Botanic Gardens at Washington, through the kindness of Senator Stewart, and carefully cultivated.

etc.

Second-The experiments in fruit culture consisted in preparatory work; that is, the setting out and cultivation for the first season of a number of varieties, with brief notes upon their growth. The following is a list of the kinds planted: Apples, sixteen varieties, eight trees of each; pears, two varieties, six trees of each; plums, two varieties, six of each; prunes, six of one variety; cherries, two varieties, six of each; quinces, two varieties, six of each; mulberries, two varieties, twelve of each; currants, six of one variety. There, are, also, a few varieties of blackberries, raspberries and strawberries.

Third-The meteorology consisted in making observations such as are made at the Government Signal Service Station, and consisted in recording three times daily, viz: at 7 A. M. and 2 P. M. and 9 P. M., the following: Atmospheric pressure, air temperature, dew point, relative humidity, maximum air temperature, minimum air temperature, direction of wind, force of wind, kind of clouds, direction of cloud movements, amount of cloudiness, time of rain or snow, and amount of rain or snow. Daily and monthly means of atmospheric pressure, air temperature, relative humidity, cloudiness, etc., are made from the above observations. In

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addition to these, a continuous record of sunshine is kept, and notes taken on general atmospheric phenomena. During July these observations were made hourly throughout the month. The results of these observations have been published from time to time in the Station bulletins.

Fourth-The observations in soil temperature consisted in making readings three times a day of thermometers set at different depths in the soil, ranging from one to ninety-six inches, viz: At 1 inch, 3 inches, 6 inches, 12 inches, 24 inches, 36 inches, 48 inches, 60 inches, 72 inches, 84 inches, and 96 inches. Readings of the standard exposed, or dry-bulb thermometer, were made at the same time. During the month of July these observations were made twenty-four times a day, or hourly throughout the month. A Whitney's selfregistering maximum and minimum soil thermometer has been added. By this instrument the soil temperature from 3 to 9 inches deep, inclusive, is registered.

Fifth-The seed germination has thus far been confined to examinations into the vitality or ability to sprout of radish and lettuce seed.

Sixth-In forestry but little has yet been done. A beginning has been made, however, and about twenty kinds of trees have been planted on the grounds, from which notes upon their growth are taken.

Seventh-The work performed as Curator of the general museum consisted in numbering and cataloguing the specimens in the collection-consisting chiefly of minerals and making a few additions. thereto.

Since the arrival of the Agriculturalist and Horticulturalist and beginning the work in April, not a small part of his time has been taken in selecting and procuring the necessary equipment for his department, consisting of scientific instruments, tools, seeds, books, etc. The department is fairly well equipped and, with suitable land, is prepared to do good work.

The Library, which has been removed into the Library room in the new Station building, is commodious and pleasant, affording ample room for book-cases, reading tables and chairs, with which it has been generously furnished.

The Board of Regents, our Senators and Congressman, and other friends of the Agricultural Experiment Station, have been active and generous in procuring additional books for the Library, numbering over three hundred and fifty volumes, consisting of scientific works on agriculture, horticulture, chemistry, botany, entomology, geology, veterinary medicine and surgery, encyclopedias and reference books of science, Government and State reports, besides a large number of papers and periodicals devoted to agriculture, horticulture, the natural sciences, industries, arts, manufactures and commercial products, meteorology, medical climatology and geography, protection to American labor and industry. Among which are those on Agricul

ture, Agricultural Science, American Agriculture, Maritime Agriculturalist, Prairie Farmer, The Farmer's Home, The Breeder's Gazette, Western Resources, Rural New Yorker, The Cornucopia, The Louisiana Planter, The Maryland Farmer. Horticulture-Garden and Forest, The American Garden, American Farm and Horticulturist, Vick's Illustrated Monthly, The Canadian Horticulturist. Scientific-The West American Science, The Sanitarian, The Chemical News, Nature, American Naturaltst, The Botanical Gazette, The American Microscopical Journal. Miscellaneous-Canadian Etomologist, American Meteorological Journal, The Age of Steel, The Annals of Hygiene, Pacific Rural Press, The Engineering and Mining Journal, The Nation, American Economist.

The Library is in good condition, books are all catalogued, well protected from dust, and everything connected with the Library in first-class order.

The Bulletin Mailing List has increased to the number of fifteen hundred, with accessions continually to the list; besides receiving bulletins for Library from every Agricultural Experiment Station in the United States and British Provinces.

The Superintendent of the Mechanical Department has provided a commodious workshop and a good set of working tools, with which much of the necessary work at the Station has been accomplished, and we look forward to additional usefulness in this department.

CONCLUSION.

With the completion of this. report my official relations with the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station are severed. You will permit me, therefore, to express my sincere thanks to you, to your predecessors in office and to all others who have in any way contributed toward the success of the Station during the time it has been under my direction. You will also allow me to say that there is, in my judgment, no duty devolving upon you as a Board of Regents that is more important, in a material sense, than that of conducting the Agricultural Experiment Station according to the laws under which it has been established, so that the sciences and the art of agriculture may equally and greatly flourish in Nevada. Yours, very respectfully,

LEROY D. BROWN, Director of the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station.

RENO, November 15, 1889.