74 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



Arrangements were begun to take up dairying as a part of the work 

 at Kocliak. Over 100 tons of native grass hay and 170 tons of silage 

 were put up during the past year. 



Cooperative work by the Alaska stations with farmers and garden- 

 ers throughout the Territory was continued, and this work aided con- 

 siderably in testing the value of different kinds and varieties of field 

 and garden crops in different localities and under varying conditions. 



The only publication of the station for 1911 was the annual report. 



The income of the station during the past fiscal year was as follows: 



United States appropriation $28,000.00 



Sales and other funds 3, 807. 86 



Total 31, 807. 86 



The work of the Alaska stations was eminently successful during 

 the past year. All of the stations are growing in the esteem and 

 favor of the people for whom they are maintained, and the result of 

 their work is of international interest. 



ARIZONA. 



Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Arizona, Tucson. 



Department of the University of Arizona. 



R. H. Forbes, M. S., Director. 



The Arizona station continued its work during the past year along 

 the same general lines pursued the year before. Several important 

 phases of the experiments in hand were brought to completion and 

 the results were either reported upon or prepared for publication. 

 Few changes were made in the station staff and there were no addi- 

 tions to the number employed the previous year. 



General progress was made in the Adams fund work. A bulletin 

 was published summarizing the results obtained up to date in the 

 study of the chemical composition and transformation as related to 

 the process of ripening in dates. Two methods of ripening this fruit 

 artificially have been developed, and it is believed that both are en- 

 tirely practical. It is pointed out that two distinct chemical varieties 

 of dates exist, the invert sugar and cane-sugar types, and that these 

 are determined b}^ the presence or relative absence of invertase. 

 Dates can not be artificially ripened into an economic product until 

 a certain minimum accumulation of sugar in the fruit has taken place. 

 Premature ripening may be induced artificially in certain varieties 

 by the action of various chemicals, acetic acid being tlie best in most 

 cases, and also by killing the protoplasm through heat. The Deglet 

 Noor date, generally considered a standard of excellence, does not 

 mature satisfactorily under the climatic conditions of Arizona, but 

 conditions favorable for the rapid ripening of this and other varie- 



