TEXAS. 135 



fermented cotton-seed meal to determine the practicability of utiliz- 

 ing this product without deleterious effects. 



Another important line of investigation to which the station has 

 given prominence is that on cotton. The cotton specialist of the sta- 

 tion has 20 acres in plat and field experiments, and also some pot work 

 to study the various factors in breeding cotton. Tliis work is in coop- 

 eration with the Bureau of Plant Industry of this Department, and 

 includes studies of the relation of various factors to productiveness 

 and earliness. The agronomist is doing fertilizer and variety work 

 with corn, conducting rotation experiments, testing forage plants for 

 Texas, and making culture experiments. He has a series of 80 plats 

 carefully laid out, and is trying inoculation experiments for alfalfa 

 with cultures of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and w4th soil inoculation 

 applied in both fall and spring. 



The veterinarian is studying blind staggers, which caused the 

 death of -4,000 or 5,000 horses in Brazos County last year, and is also 

 giving attention to a disease of goats and continuing his inoculation 

 work with Texas fever. The horticultural work includes fertilizer 

 experiments with peaches in a new orchard, variety tests of pecans 

 and plums, fertilizer tests and spraying experiments with tomatoes, 

 the latter to control the blossom-end rot, which is very troublesome, 

 and fertilizer experiments with sweet potatoes. The horticulturist is 

 also experimenting with a half-acre farmer's garden for illustrative 

 purposes and with bunch crops, which he is putting up for market. 

 He is studying the geotropism of grape roots with the idea of secur- 

 ing a deep-rooted vine which will withstand drought. The horticul- 

 tural work is conducted partly on the station grounds and partly at 

 the Troupe substation. 



The last legislature passed a feeding-stuff law, placing its execu- 

 tion in the hands of the station and providing a tonnage tax to pay 

 the expense. Only $3,000 a year was provided for each substation, 

 which is inadecpuite considering the important bearing that these sub- 

 stations have had in the development of the agriculture of the State. 

 For exam})le, from Beeville in 1898, the year in which the station 

 was established, 21,738 pounds of vegetables were shipped out by ex- 

 press and none by freight. In 1904 207,409 pounds of vegetables 

 were shipped by express and in addition Gl freight carloads. H. H. 

 Harrington, chemist of the college and station, has been elected 

 president, to succeed D. F. Houston, resigned. 



The station is doing more work than ever before and is arousing 

 much more popuhir interest. The farmers are now looking to the 

 station for aid in various lines, and the station's c()rresi)ondence is 

 large. It is accomplishing all that could well l)e expected with the 

 funds at its disposal ; but the interests of this large btate arc so mani- 



