156 REPORT OP OFFICE OP EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



brood, and $10,000 for the study of live-stock problems, mainly the 

 suppression of tuberculosis, in cooperation with the -State board of 

 agriculture, were to a large extent administered by the stations. A 

 department of dairy husbandry w^as established with A. S. Cook, 

 formerly of the Dairy Division of this department, in charge. The 

 horse barn, dairy barn, two silos, and several smaller structures were 

 destroyed by fire July 11, 1911. The loss, amounting to about $25,000, 

 was covered by insurance. Rebuilding on a better plan has already 

 begun. 



The Adams fund work, as heretofore, was confined to studies in 

 soil chemistry and bacteriology and plant breeding. The work in 

 soil chemistry and bacteriology has been well developed, and during 

 the past year included studies on the accumulation and utilization 

 of atmospheric nitrogen and on the availability of nitrogenous fer- 

 tilizer materials. In connection with these lines of work, studies 

 were made of the accumulation of nitrogen in the soil by means of 

 green manures, the efficiency of different methods of inoculation of 

 legumes, the influence of lime on nitrogen transformation in the soil, 

 and the reciprocal relations of legumes and nonlegumes when grown 

 together. Extensive laboratory and pot experiments on ammonifica- 

 tion were made, with the result that a very satisfactory bacterio- 

 logical method for determining the availibility of organic nitro- 

 genous fertilizers was worked out, and much light was thrown upon 

 the conditions which control ammonification and nitrification in the 

 soil. 



In the plant-breeding work attention was given to heredity, toxi- 

 cology, sap circulation, and shading and other conditions of environ- 

 ment. Work on heredity was principally pursued with the view to 

 determining rules of inheritance, and to .this end stress was laid 

 upon the behavior of tomatoes in their first generation. This work 

 has been in progress for several years and was conducted on an 

 extensive scale. Breeding work similar to that with tomatoes was 

 also extended to fruits. Work was also pursued in breeding types 

 of eggplant, with particular emphasis upon the characteristics of a 

 hybrid of an American and a Chinese species. Other truck crops 

 considered along similar lines were okra, peas, peppers, gourds, and 

 bush and vine varieties of '^quashes. Work in plant toxicology was 

 begun and a bulletin was published upon Bordeaux injury to peaches. 

 The study of plant sap circulation was limited to the sweet potato 

 vine, and plant shading was studied in the greenhouse preparatory 

 to more extended work in the field. The main feature of other plant 

 environment work w-as a study of the effect of various conditions of 

 light, heat, and moisture on the development of certain parts in 

 the early growth of different plants. 



