176 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



The work of the North Dakota station includes a number of 

 important lines of investigation of scientific interest and practical 

 importance. Much field work was lost during the past year through 

 the severe drought, but this also gave an additional test to some of 

 the experiments in hand. The progress of the station would be 

 materially aided by more direct support from the State. 



OHIO. 



Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Wooster. 

 C. E. Thorne, M. S. a., Director. 



The changes on the staff of the Ohio station included a number of 

 resignations and appointments in the corps of assistants and the 

 appointment of J. AV. Smith as climatologist. For the fiscal year 

 1912 the last general assembly appropriated the following amounts 

 for the different station departments: Administration, $35,500: 

 agronomy, $18,000; animal husbandry, $20,000; botany, $10,000; co- 

 operation, $30,000; entomolog^^ $8,000; forestry, $12,000; soils, 

 $20,000; chemistry, $5,000; horticulture, $17,000: animal nutrition, 

 $8,000 ; and dairying, $10,000, or a total of $193,500. 



A survey of the soil types of the State and studies on wool were 

 begun during the year, and work with poultry and in soil bacteri- 

 ology was undertaken. The nutrition building with equipment was 

 completed at a cost of $22,000. (PI. VIII, fig. 1.) This is a two- 

 story structure 40 by CO feet in size, containing rooms for metabolism 

 experiments wdth animals, slaughtering and curing rooms, ma- 

 chinery for handling and working up carcasses, and a 20-ton ice 

 machine. Considerable time was also given to the fitting up of the 

 new soils building and the greenhouses. (PL VIII, fig. 2.) At the 

 southeastern test farm a sheep and storage barn 60 by 68 feet, Avith a 

 wing 24 by 72 feet, w^as erected to facilitate the work in sheep hus- 

 bandry. At this farm there was also erected a laying house 20 by 60 

 feet in size for extensions in poultry w^ork. The facilities for poultry 

 Avork Avere also somewhat enlarged at Wooster. 



The Adams fund Avork was centered on three projects. The study 

 of the relation of lime and phosphorus to the maintenance of soil 

 fertility was continued at the station and at Strongsville. The 

 phosphorus content of the soils of the State and the fonns in which 

 this element is present and the forms best adapted to different soils 

 were studied, as well as the chemical composition of crops grown on 

 differently treated plats. 



The investigation on the increase in fixation of desirable properties 

 in i^lants Avas continued Avith pure lines of different crops to ascer- 

 tain whether heritable A^ariations occur in pure lines of self -fertilized 

 plants. Starting Avith single heads of Avheat, a study was made of 



