MINNESOTA. 171 



It was observed during the year that pigs from immune sows 

 appear to be born with very liigh resistance to cholera. This natural 

 immunity was found to disappear gradually, but was sufficient up to 

 at least 5 weeks of age to make it possible to inoculate such pigs 

 with very high virulent blood with an unimportant percentage of 

 loss. A new operating table with hoisting apparatus was devised 

 by this department, by means of which hyperimmunization and 

 serum production is much facilitated. Work was also done with 

 antituberculosis vaccine, and its actual working efficiency under ordi- 

 nary farm conditions was further studied. The swamp-fever work 

 was carried on in cooperation with the Minnesota State Live Stock 

 Sanitary Board and the Bureau of Animal Industry of this depart- 

 ment. 



The station conducted cooperative work with farmers in experi- 

 ments to control hog cholera, in the spraying of plums and apples, 

 in combating grasshoppers, and in the study of special types of farm- 

 ing, such as potato growing, ensilage, feeding, and the cost of opera- 

 ting large farms in plant breeding with different farm crops. Coop- 

 eration was also conducted with the Bureau of Plant Industry in 

 the study of rust of cereals and of sorghum smut, as well as in mak- 

 ing a plant-disease survey of the State. At the request of the Bureau 

 of Entomology of this department the station acts as deputy in- 

 spector of all nursery stock imported into Minnesota. The station 

 also performs the State nursery inspection. Cooperative plant- 

 breeding work is carried on with the Bureau of Plant Industry, and 

 in this connection studies are made to provide a systematic nomen- 

 clature of varieties of barley. 



A special State appropriation has made it possible to organize an 

 extension department which cooperates with all the other depart- 

 ments of the station in all kinds of extension work. This depart- 

 ment publishes a periodical for the farmer's library for which mate- 

 rial is furnished for the various departments of the station and 

 which also furnishes material to the papers of the State and prepares 

 special articles for the general press and for agricultural journals. 

 Matters bearing on special subjects are treated in special extension 

 bulletins and circulars. Twenty demonstration farms scattered 

 throughout the State were conducted by this department in coopera- 

 tion with the station. Each farm was surveyed by soil experts, 

 drainage maps where necessary were supplied, and cropping systems 

 and farm organization were outlined. The station through the ex- 

 tension department furnishes only the advice and direction, -and the 

 results so far secured seem to promise that the plan will be successful. 



The following publications of this station were received during the 

 year: Bulletin IIG, Report of the Northeast Experiment Farm at 

 Grand Rapids, Minn. ; and the Annual Reports for 1908 and 1909. 



