NEW YORK. Ill 



studies on the troublesome insects of the State, especially those 

 att'ccting grapes. He has found a remedy for the berry moth and for 

 two comparatively new shade-tree pests. The poultry experiments 

 on housing, ventilation, and feeding are being continued. Alfalfa 

 pasturage for chickens is being tested, and a study of the role of grit 

 in the diet is being made. 



All of the agricultural work at Cornell University — instruction, in- 

 vestigation, and extension — has been greatly strengthened. There 

 were about 400 students in the agricultural courses last year, includ- 

 ing a considerable number of graduate students, and students of 

 twenty different nationalities. The investigations are being developed 

 as fast as funds Avill permit, and the extension work is being pushed. 

 The farmers' reading course now has 26,000 readers. In the nature- 

 study work there are 486 clubs, with a membership of over 14,000 

 children, who sent in over 33,000 letters on such subjects as alfalfa, 

 soils, pumpkins, horses, dogs, cows, birds, and poultry. Two-thirds 

 of the letters dealt with agricultural subjects, this being twice as many 

 as ever before, showing a decided growth of interest in agricultural 

 matters. With the completion of the new agricultural building both 

 the college and the station will have greatly improved laboratory 

 facilities, and be in a position to greatly extend their usefulness, pro- 

 vided they can secure adequate maintenance funds. There are abun- 

 dant reasons why the State of New York should amply endow the 

 agricultural department of this univeristy on a scale commensurate 

 with the agricultural interests of the State, and no doubt this will be 

 done. 



LINES OP WORK. 



The principal lines of work conducted at the Cornell Station dur- 

 ing the past year were as follows: Chemistry — study of soils, sugar 

 content of beets and sweet corn, feeding stuffs, dairy products, in- 

 secticides, and fertilizers; field experiments — tests of rotations, le- 

 gumes, and fertilizers, tillage and fertilizer experiments with pota- 

 toes, beans, buckwheat, etc., plat experinuMits with grasses, and selec- 

 tion and breeding of field crops; horticulture — forcing strawberries, 

 tree fruits, and nuishrooms, studies of peonies, Jai)anese plums, and 

 methods of spraying, investigation of plant growth inider artificial 

 light; diseases of plants — fungus diseases of forest and shade trees, 

 study of the role of fungi in rendering available the plant food in dead 

 wood, study of edible fungi and of numerous fungus and bacterial 

 diseases of vegetables; feeding experiments — dairy cows, sheep, and 

 swine; diseases of animals; poultry experiments — crossing of breeds, 

 experiments in the cost of v}S*ti: j)roduction, and on the effect of early 

 molting on laying in the early fall and winter; entomology — study of 

 the life history of several economic insects, and spraying experiments, 

 and dairying. 



