MINNESOTA. 135 



cholera. Other activities inchided a test of the practical value of 

 von Behring's antituberculosis vaccine, and work on swamp fever 

 in cooperation with this department, principally on methods of 

 diagnosis. 



The department of dairy and animal husbandry studied the yield 

 of milk and butter fat in relation to the feed consumed and con- 

 ducted breeding experiments for maximum utility, symmetry, and 

 uniformity in animals. Extensive pig- feeding experiments and feed- 

 ing tests with silage for cows were also conducted. 



The chemical department made an extensive study of wheats and 

 flours, including composition, milling, and baking tests (PI. II, fig. 2), 

 and physical and chemical studies of the soils of the 25 demonstra- 

 tion farms of the station were carried on. The analytical data were 

 checked up with pot tests, and the work is to be extended to field trials. 



The work in agronomy and farm management was conducted along 

 the lines of plant breeding, farm crops, crop rotation, cost of crop 

 production, weed eradication, and farm management. Through the 

 station's work, corn growing has been extended northward in the 

 State. The weed eradication work consisted of studies of methods 

 for the eradication of quack grass and Canada thistles. The farm 

 management work, partly in cooperation with this department, in- 

 cluded studies of farms in a number of localities to determine the cost 

 of operation and net profit under different types of farming. 



In botany and plant pathology the smuts of cereals were studied, 

 and jDarticular attention was given to the loose smuts of wheat and 

 barley and the smut of corn. A preliminary study of forest, park, 

 and shade trees was begini, and seed testing was carried on, about 

 3,000 lots of seed being tested during the year. Other lines of work 

 comprised the building up of a flax-sick soil, the development of 

 plants resistant to flax rust, studies of bean bacteriosis and early 

 blight of the potato, and tests in orchard spraying. 



The. entomological department tried methods of controlling grass- 

 hoppers, oak borers, plum curculio, cutworm^, and potato beetles. 

 Grasshoppers were successfully controlled with arsenite of soda and 

 molasses baits at a cost of about 30 cents per acre. Poisoned bran 

 mash was most successful in the destruction of cutworms, and 

 arsenate of lead sprays in combating the potato beetle. The adult 

 potato beetle was found to require a more concentrated solution of 

 arsenate of lead than the larva. In addition to this work, studies 

 were made of the larch sawfly, which defoliates tamaracks in the 

 State, and an elm-leaf pruner, which cuts off the leaves and terminal 

 twigs of the elm. A species of tussock moth from eggs on a rosebush 

 from France and parasites of the cutworm were also studied. 



The department of horticulture conducted experiments in potato 

 breeding, tested varieties and cultural methods, studied the rate of 



