96 EEPORT OP OFFICE OF EXPEEIMENT STATIONS. 



The work of the Alaska stations appears to be progressing very 

 favorably, when the conditions under which they labor are con- 

 sidered. The country is developing very slowly, but the settlers are 

 applying more and more to the station for assistance and direction 

 in their plantings. 



ARIZONA. 



Agricultural Experiment Station of tlie University of Arizona, Tucson. 



Department of the University of Arizona. 



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



The Arizona station continued in general in 1909-10 the lines of 

 work in progress the year before. On the station staff assistants were 

 appointed during the year to give special attention to dry-farming 

 problems and to alfalfa investigations, especially the breeding of 

 strains adapted to the Southwest. W. B. McCallum, assistant botan- 

 ist, severed his connection with the station at the close of the year 

 to go into commercial work. A. E. Vinson was granted a leave of 

 absence of seven months to go to Europe and continue his studies on 

 the action of enzyms in ripening fruits, and G. E. P. Smith was given, 

 leave of absence to make a technical study of pumping devices. The 

 residence building at the Yuma date orchard was enlarged, and 

 laboratory facilities in the university main building at Tucson were 

 increased. 



Several of the Adams-fund projects of the station made good 

 j)rogress and some of them were completed during the year. The 

 work on the ripening of dates was practically finished and some of 

 the chemical results have already been published. The analytical 

 work in studying the nutritive value of cacti was also finished, and 

 a report on the chemical and botanical phases of the project will 

 soon appear. A report on the study of the underflow waters of the 

 Rillito Valley, published as Bulletin 64 of the station, presents data 

 regarding the velocity of the underflow, fluctuations of the water 

 table observed in wells, seepage measurements, tests of wells now 

 being pumped, etc., and shows that an adequate and economical 

 supply of water for irrigation can not be obtained by individual 

 pumping jjlants, but that cooperative pumping enterprises, involving 

 cheap fuel, efficient machinery, deep wells properly located, and 

 skilled supervision of labor, are required to make use of these waters 

 economically. In this connection a cooperative pumping project in 

 the Rillito Valley was designed in detail. This work has now been 

 extended to the Sulphur Springs Valley. 



In the line of plant breeding, efforts were made to obtain leafy 

 strains of alfalfa especially adapted to Arizona conditions, and a 

 successful beginning in the development of special strains for the 

 Southwest was made. 



