X Report of the Director. 



given full directions for conducting culture experiments with 

 sugar beets, selecting land, preparing the soil, planting, tillage^ 

 harvesting and preparing specimens for analysis, together with 

 diagrams showing the size, number and arrangement of plats. 

 The Department of Agriculture at Washington furnished the 

 beet seed which was distributed to three hundred and sixteen 

 experimenters. The experiments are being conducted in thirty- 

 four of the sixty counties of the State. The other circular was- 

 prepared by the Chemical Department and it, in like manner, 

 gave full directions for carrying out experiments with sugar beets 

 and other crops on plats treated with commercial fertilizers of 

 known weight and composition together with unfertilized check 

 plats. The Station purchased and sent out two hundred and 

 three sets, each set containing five small sacks of fertilizer. 

 These investigations cover forty-seven counties of the State and 

 hence are, as well as those previously mentioned, being carried 

 on under varied climatic and soil conditions. 



The farmers of New York know but little about sugar beet 

 culture, soil or fertilizers best adapted to the highest develop- 

 ment of the beet. By these extended experiments it is hoped 

 that much useful information will be disseminated and that the 

 farmers will be led to carry on investigations on their own 

 account in the future, while the Station will be able to discover 

 the districts and the kind of tillage and fertilizers which give 

 promise of highest results. 



On the University farm twelve plats which are separated from 

 one another and from the adjoining land by cemented brick walls 

 two feet deep, have been planted to sugar beets, with and without 

 fertilizers. Soil to the depth of two feet was removed, eight 

 inches at a time, and placed in three piles. After the walls 

 were built each pile of earth was thoroughly mixed and returned 

 in the reverse order of its removal. It is hoped by this means 

 to secure normal out door conditions while securing absolutely 

 like conditions of soil-texture and composition. 



The most difficult and original experiment undertaken is the 

 introduction into the schools of what, for want of a more appro- 

 priate name, has been called " Nature Study." For a long 



