48 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



LINES or AVORK. 



Tlu' priiK'ii)al lines of work conducti'd at the Alaska stations dur- 

 ing;: the past fiscal year Mere as follows: Horticulture — the propao;a- 

 tion and introduction of tree and bush fruits; field experiments — 

 experiments with cereals, the testing of forage plants and grasses, 

 and the inijU'ovement of soil by the addition of lime, fertilizers, and 

 drainage; the beginning of experiments in aninnil husbandry and 

 dairying; meteorology — the collection of data from some 2G stations 

 in cooperation with the United States Weather Bureau, the Weather 

 Bureau furnishing the instruments and the special agent in charge 

 supervising the work ; distribution of seeds to about 2,000 persons 

 in all parts of the Territory in cooperation with the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry. 



INCOME. 



Thp income of the stations during the past fiscal year w^as as 

 follows : 



United States appropriation $15,000.00 



Farm products 191. 61 



Total 15, 191. Gl 



ARIZONA. 



Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Arizona, Tucson. 



Department of the University of Arizona. 



R. H. Forbes, M. S., Director. 



GENERAL OUTLOOK. 



As a result of four years of feeding experiments with steers, the 

 Arizona Station finds that alfalfa is probably the most valuable crop 

 of the Southwest for beef production. A straight alfalfa ration, 

 compared with an alfalfa and carbohydrate ration, gave in six sets 

 of trials average results which Avere practically identical, and since 

 alfalfa can be more cheaply produced in that region than carbo- 

 hydrate feeds, such as sorghum, millet, and corn, the alfalfa ration 

 is considered the more economical in beef production. The results 

 of investigations relating to the cost of pumping for irrigation in 

 Arizona were published in Bulletin 49, for which there has been 

 great demand. The station has also published results of investiga- 

 tions in pickling olives, which, it is thought, w'ill lead to the increased 

 use of the olive in this country. 



Among the investigations in progress during the year are a study 

 of the injurious effects of mine tailings turned into the rivers used 

 for irrigation purposes; a study of the chemistry of date ripening, 



