24 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



PORTO RICO STATION. 



The work of the station during the year was continued along the 

 well-planned lines previously described. Some few changes were 

 made in the personnel of the station staff. The coffee investigations 

 that had been carried on for nearly 10 years on the Carmelita planta- 

 tion w^re brought to a close, and the work has been transferred to an 

 old coffee plantation near the station. This makes possible a much 

 wider field of investigations, as the members of the staff can person- 

 ally supervise their experiments much better than formerly. 



The lowlands of the station have been drained with earthen tile 

 made on the premises, and the value of the tile drainage is very evi- 

 dent. During the year a machine was purchased for the manufac- 

 ture of cement tile, and tile of this kind will, it is thought, be less 

 expensive, as less labor is required in its manufacture and there is no 

 expense for burning, as in the case of clay tile. 



The trend of agriculture in Porto Rico is toward intensive culture, 

 and as a result the station is looked to for information along many 

 lines. During the past year a number of planters spent several weeks 

 at the station studying improved methods of agricultural practice. 

 The increased correspondence, station visitors, requests for pub- 

 lications, etc., all indicate that the station is growing in the appre- 

 ciation of the people of Porto Rico, The cooperative work with 

 planters and orchardists is being extended in many parts of the 

 island, and this makes it possible to include experiments on various 

 types of soil, climatic conditions, etc., at very little expense to the 

 station. 



In the act of the Congress making appropriations for the station for 

 the fiscal year special provisions were made for coffee investigations. 

 The lease on the land under experiment on the coffee estate La Car- 

 melita was about to expire, and it was canceled and, as mentioned 

 above, the work was moved nearer the station, where a 95-acre coffee 

 plantation has been placed at the disposal of the station for experi- 

 ments in renovating an old plantation, studies on coffee diseases, 

 insect pests, coffee improvement, etc. The introduction of the higher- 

 priced coffees into Porto Rican culture has been continued, and some 

 of the Java varieties are coming into bearing. Some 3-year-old trees 

 have borne at the rate of 800 pounds merchantable coffee per acre, 

 while the average of the island is only about 200 pounds per acre. 

 Among the introduced varieties now in bearing are: Ceylon hybrid; 

 Mocha hybrid; Blue Mountain, of Jamaica; Pedang, of Sumatra; 

 Preanger, Pantgoer, Erecta, and Columnaris, of Java; Guadeloupe; 

 Maragogype; Surinam; and Mocha. A nimiber of others should 

 bear their first crop next season. Experiments are in progress in 

 transplanting coffee trees, studies on the vitality of coffee seeds, the 



