12 Director's Report of the 



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Work in the Second Judicial Department. 



The expenditure of the appropriation foi' work in this depart- 

 ment has been along much the same lines as in the past years. 

 The needs of the farmers and market gardeners in this section of 

 the State clearly indicate the directions in which they .should 

 receive help. The concentration of vegetable and fruit growing, 

 both out of doors and under glass, in the vicinity of New York for 

 so many years has brought about a corresponding concentration 

 of injurious fungi and insects. The aid, therefore, which this 

 Station is able to give to the agriculture of Eastern New York is 

 chiefly in studying new diseases and insects and in illustrating 

 how these pests may be held in check. There seems to be no 

 question but that the policy which has heretofore prevailed in the 

 management of this special work should be materially changed. 

 An attempt has been made to carry on at Jamaica, where this 

 branch efifort has its headquarters, more or less scientific re- 

 search. Such research necessitates an equipment of apparatus 

 and a reference library, and if it is successfully mftintained under 

 the present plan, apparatus and library facilities must be dupli- 

 cated, a policy which is certainly unwise and wasteful. There is 

 no question but that the concentration of the scientific work in 

 the laboratories of the Station at Geneva will be in the interests 

 of economy and eflSciency. In this way much more varied and 

 extensive experiments, illustrative and otherwise, can be con- 

 ducted in different parts of the Second Judicial Department. It 

 is gratifying to know that one of the most intelligent and active 

 agricultural societies in this department has already, by unani- 

 mous resolution, approved this change of policy. A vei'y en- 

 couraging feature of this action by such a body of farmers was 

 the accompanying declaration that one special line of experi- 

 ments had already saved to the agriculture of one section of 

 Long Island at least |75,()00. In view of the considerations here 

 presented, I shall recommend that this special fund be exi)ended 

 chiefly in maintaining experiments in the field and in forcing 

 houses, which shall be an attempt to illustrate the application to 



