The work of the Connecticut Storrs Station is now being developed especially along the lines of dairying, poultry raising, and the management of worn soils. The dairy investigations are principally concerned with dairy bacteriology in relation to sanitary milk production and handling and the manufacture of soft cheese, the latter in cooperation with the Bureau of Animal Industry of this Department. In connection with the dairy investigations herd records have been kept and a study made of the relative efficiency of the digestible nutrients of different feeds. A mycologist and a chemist have been appointed in connection with the cheese investigations. The investigations on the food and nutrition of man have been continued as heretofore in cooperation with this Office and have been aided by a special appropriation from the State. These investigations are conducted at Middletown. There were also alfalfa investigations and variety tests of sweet corn and pole beans in cooperation with the Bureau of Plant Industry of this Department. In the poultry work special attention has been given of late to squab raising. Problems in the management of worn-out soils have been undertaken, both in connection with experiments with cover crops and leguminous crops, including alfalfa grown in a cooperative way in many parts of the State, and with horticultural work. Alfalfa has been found unsuited to Connecticut conditions, and the investigations with it have been discontinued. The horticultural work has included also experiments in spraying for plant diseases, growing various crops under shade, and thinning fruit. During the year the poultryman resigned, and a number of appointments were made to new positions on the staff. Dr. B. F. Koons, for many years president of the Storrs Agricultural School and later of the Connecticut Agricultural College, died December 17, 1903, at the age of 55 years. At the time of his death he was consulting entomologist of the station and professor of natural history in the college. He had been connected with the institution for over twenty years. The station has been steadily adding to its equipment and organizing its work along a few important lines. It is thus enabled to make an excellent showing with the very limited funds at its command. There are many problems related to the specialized agricultural industries of the State which ought to be studied by the station, but can not be considered until more liberal funds are provided. LINES OF WORK. The principal lines of work conducted at the Connecticut Storrs Station during the past year were as follows: Food and nutrition of man and animals; bacteriology of dairy products; field experiments-fertilizers, soil tests, cover crops, nitrogen experiments; horticulture; poultry experiments, and dairying. INCOME. The income of the station during the past fiscal year was as follows: United States appropriation.. State appropriation__ Miscellaneous Total $7,500.00 1,800.00 15. 71 9, 315. 71 A report of the receipts and expenditures for the United States fund has been rendered in accordance with the schedules prescribed by this Department and has been approved. PUBLICATIONS. The publications of this station received during the past fiscal year were Bulletins 26-30 and the Annual Report for 1903. The bulletins were on the following subjects: The relation of temperature to the keeping property of milk, poultry as food, dairy observations, records of a dairy herd for five years, and spraying notes for 1903. The Annual Report includes, in addition to a financial statement, summary accounts of the operations of the different departments of the station, and a description of the recently equipped bacteriology laboratory, the following special articles: Thinning fruit, comparison of bacteria in strained and unstrained samples of milk, strained and unstrained milk preserved at 70° and 50° F., aseptic milk, qualitative analysis of bacteria in market milk, bacteria in freshly drawn milk, the nutrition investigations of the Storrs Experiment Station, the conservation of energy in the living organism, the demands of the body for nourishment and dietary standards, the composition of poultry, poultry as food, dehorning cattle, milking records, food cost of raising calves, meteorological observations at Storrs, and general crop review. DELAWARE. The Delaware College Agricultural Experiment Station, Newark. Department of Delaware College. GOVERNING BOARD. * Board of Trustees: C. B. Lore (President), Wilmington; Manlove Hayes (Vice-President), Dover; C. B. Evans* (Secretary and Treasurer), Newark; Governor John Hunn (er officio), Dover; G. A. Harter* (ex officio), Newark; James Hossinger, Newark; II. G. M. Kollock, Newark; J. C. Higgins, Delaware City; G. W. Marshall, Milford; J. II. Whiteman, Wilmington; George Biddle, Elkton; F. W. Curtis, Newark; W. T. Lyman,* Wilmington; D. W. Corbit,* Odessa; Edward Reynolds, Middletown; L. H. Ball, Marshalltown; L. P. Bush, Wilmington; J. E. Addicks, Claymont; J. C. Stockly, Smyrna; James Pennewill, Dover; C. S. Conwell, Camden; Geo. G. Kerr,* Newark; 1. W. Baker, Seaford; E. R. Paynter, Georgetown; W. II. Stevens, Seaford; John Barkley, Clayton; W. Watson Harrington, Dover; Lewis M. Mustard, Lewes; S. H. Messick, Bridgeville. STATION STAFF. Arthur T. Neale,* A. M., PH. D., Di rector, Agriculturist. F. D. Chester, M. S., Mycologist. Clayton O. Smith, B. S., A. M., Assistant Bacteriologist. C. L. Penny, A. M., Chemist. C. O. Houghton, A. B., Entomologist. GENERAL OUTLOOK. There has been little change in the conditions or lines of work at the Delaware Station during the past fiscal year. The bacteriologist is continuing his studies of soil micro-organisms and has published a bulletin on the bacteriological analysis of soils; the chemist has made a study of cover crops as green manure and has been carrying on a soil survey of the State; the entomologist has been engaged upon a study of a number of important insects and their repression; and the horticulturist has been working upon the effect of the Cooper-Hewett mercury vapor lamp in the greenhouse. He has also been working on orchard cover crops in cooperation with the Bureau of Plant Industry of this Department, the pruning of peach trees, and a modification of the lime-sulphur-salt mixture. The staff of the Delaware Station devotes its time almost exclusively to station work. The station has no farm, but field trials are conducted in cooperation with farmers or on a private farm near the station. On this farm there is now, in addition to field experiments, a quite important experiment in the production of sanitary milk on an economic basis. In this work very cheap, plain buildings are erected and use made of only those appliances for handling milk which any careful farmer might have, but at the same time all the provisions for hygienic conditions in the stable and in the handling of the milk are observed, and the milk is examined for germ content. It is a practical commercial problem on a strictly commercial basis, and the results should be of considerable value to farmers in the vicinity of large cities. The Delaware Station, as well as the agricultural department of the college, greatly needs additional funds for adequate equipment and extension of work. LINES OF WORK. The principal lines of work conducted at the Delaware Station during the past year were as follows: Chemistry; bacteriology--studies of nitrifying bacteria and nitrogen-assimilating bacteria; field experiments-cultural experiments with legumes and other forage and field crops, breeding experiments with cereals; horticulture-study of cover crops for orchards, pruning of orchards, varieties of fruits; diseases of plants-study of blights and other diseases of cantaloupes, canker of pears and apples, asparagus rust and other fungus diseases of fruits and vegetables; feeding experiments; diseases of animals; entomology—studies of insects attacking fruit and shade trees, and dairying. INCOME. The income of the station during the past fiscal year was as follows: United States appropriation $15,000 A report of the receipts and expenditures for the United States fund has been rendered in accordance with the schedules prescribed by this Department and has been approved. PUBLICATIONS. The publications of this station received during the past fiscal year were Bulletins 60-65, on cover crops as green manure, orchard cover crops in Delaware, pruning the peach, notes on fungus diseases in Delaware, some experiences with lime, sulphur, and salt washes, and the bacteriological analysis of soils; and the Annual Report for 1902, in which the following topics are treated: Dairying as a factor in the profitable utilization of farm lands; studies in plant diseases, including treatment of pear canker or body blight, pear blight notes, a blight of currants, a blight of Japanese chestnuts and of peach stock, and spraying tomatoes for blight; studies of soil bacteriology; report of the chemist, including the growth of crimson clover, sugar-beet experiment, insecticides, and changes in the composition of growing peaches; report of the horticulturist, including nitrate of soda on asparagus, thinning apples, peach thinning experiments, plant nutrition as applied to peaches, pear self-pollination, peach self-pollination, apple pollinations, root forcing on fruit trees, orchard cover crops, and the station orchard; report of the entomologist, including remedies for the codling moth, remedies for apple plant lice, remedies for the San José scale, remedies for the strawberry root louse, the periodical cicada, the harlequin cabbage bug, the white-marked tussock moth, and the fall webworm; and report of the meteorologist. FLORIDA. Agricultural Experiment Station of Florida, Lake City. Department of University of Florida. GOVERNING BOARD. Board of Trustees: George W. Wilson (President), Jacksonville; F. E. Harris, Ocala; F. L. Stringer (Secretary), Brooksville; E. D. Beggs, Pensacola; C. A. Carson (Vice-President), Kissimmee; F. M. Simonton, Tampa; J. R. Parrott, Jacksonville; W. P. Jernigan (Clerk), Lake City. STATION STAFF. Andrew Sledd, A. M., PH. D., Director. C. M. Conner, B. S., Vice-Director, Agriculturist. E. R. Flint, B. S., PH. D., M. D., Chemist. E. H. Sellards, M. A., PH. D., Entomologist, Geologist. F. M. Rolfs, M. S., Botanist, Horticulturist. C. F. Dawson, M. D., D. V. S., Veteri- A. W. Blair, M. S., A. M., Assistant A. Tyler, Stenographer, Librarian. F. C. Reimer, B. S., Assistant Botan- R. A. Lichtenthaeler, M. S., Assistant S. A. Robert, B. S., Assistant in Field John F. Mitchell, Foreman of Farm. W. P. Jernigan, Auditor, Bookkeeper. GENERAL OUTLOOK. The investigations of the Florida Station have not been changed materially during the past year. The experiments with varieties of pineapples and pecans have been suspended temporarily, but the other work has gone on as formerly. During the year the agriculturist conducted feeding experiments with horses and mules to determine whether home-grown feeding stuffs (sweet potatoes and cassava) could be profitably substituted for corn and oats, and obtained results which indicate that these products may be so used, and with some saving in the cost of feeding. In these experiments beggar-weed hay was used as the source of protein supply. There have also been feeding and digestion experiments with steers to compare the feeding value of sweet potatoes and cassava. Experiments with a number of forage plants are under way; also experiments in improving native stock. The station has also begun cooperating with farmers in growing alfalfa and in controlling potato diseases and insects injurious to oranges and pecans. Farmers' institutes were |