14 REPORT OF OFFTCK OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



gat ions in a<]:riciiltuiv were brought directly to the attention of 

 nearly 10,000 students in agricultural colleges and probably :U)0,000 

 attendants at fanners' institutes. A much larger number of 

 farmers has been reached and a wider influence has been extended 

 by means of the publications of the stations. These publications 

 during the past year aggregated 403 annual reports and bulletins, 

 and a total of more than 5,400,000 copies of them were distributed to 

 over 731.000 addresses on the regular mailing lists. The stations 

 also published and distributed nearly 1,150,000 copies of circulars, 

 leaflets, press bulletins, and other special publications. Many of 

 tliem report rapidly growing mailing lists and correspondence, and 

 in some cases the demands of this nature have been more than the 

 stations could meet. Considering their limited resources, these in- 

 stitutions are accomplishing a large amount of useful work and giv- 

 ing wide publicity to the results attained. 



PROGRESS OF THE STATIONS. 



In the last report of this Office attention was called to the w^ork 

 of the experiment stations in the field of agronomic research, and 

 especially to the results attained by a few" of the stations in plant- 

 breeding experiments. The remarkable success which has attended 

 the work of some of the stations in breeding and selecting special- 

 purpose varieties of corn and wheat has led to the rapid extension of 

 this class of investigations. Many of the stations are now engag- 

 ing in this kind of work, and, in cooperation with this Department, 

 are breeding and selecting forage plants and cereals for greater 

 production, for drought resistance, and for alkali resistance; cotton 

 for longer staple and for resistance to insect pests and diseases; cow- 

 peas for yield and resistance to drought and disease ; sweet corn and 

 sugar beets for increased sugar content ; fruits and cereals for greater 

 resistance to cold ; tobacco for quality and form, and numerous other 

 field and garden crops for special qualities. In the same wa}^ new 

 varieties secured by crossing are being so handled as to fix their de- 

 sirable qualities. It now aj^pears entirely feasible to secure as 

 marked results in originating and fixing desirable characteristics in 

 plants as in animals. 



Success in these lines of investigation has stimulated the station 

 men to greater activity along other important lines of research. In 

 the animal-husbandry work, for exami:)le, greater activity is apparent 

 in the study of breeding problems. Several of the stations are study- 

 ing fundamental breeding problems concerning the application of 

 Mendel's law to the origination of new types of animals, while others 

 are breeding and selecting for si:)ecial performance. Cattle are being 

 bred for milk or beef production, chickens for egg production, swine 

 for lean meat, mutton sheep for early maturity, etc., and quite re- 



