KEPORT OF OFFICE OP EXPEEIMENT STATIONS. 237 



SOUTH DAKOTA. 



South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, Brookings. 



South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. 



J. W. Wilson, jM. S. A., Director. 



Satisfactory progress was made by the South Dakota station 

 during the year. The changes in tlie station staff were confined to 

 resignations and appointments of assistants. The new dairy barn 

 for which the State appropriated $10,000 was completed, and the 

 new plant-breeding house was occupied by the horticultural de- 

 partment. 



Work on the different Adams-fund projects was continued, and 

 along certain lines considerable progress was made. The work on 

 improving hardy wild fruits by breeding was carried forward on 

 the basis that to secure hardiness it is necessary to have at least one 

 of the parents hardy, and that a hardy fruit can not be developed 

 by selection from tender varieties. The sand cherry was found to 

 mate well with native and Japanese plums, and varieties combining 

 the vigor and quality of the Japanese plum with the earliness and 

 hardiness of the sand cherry have been secured. The two most 

 promising new varieties were named Opata and Sapa. 



The union of the native jilum and the Chinese apricot has also 

 given good results, and the three best varieties promising as profit- 

 able market fruits were named Hanska, Inkj)a, and Kaga. Two new 

 hybrids, Sansota and Cheresota, of which the sand cherry is the 

 female parent and the De Sota plum the male parent, were sent out 

 in the spring of 1910. The fruits of these sorts approximate the 

 De Sota in flavor and size and the sand cherry in color. The hybrids 

 of the purple-leafed plum of Persia with the sand cherry have turned 

 out to be valuable ornamentals, following the sand cherry in stature 

 of i^lant and glossiness of leaf and the Persian sire in the rich purple- 

 red color of foliage. An extensive field experiment with apple-graft 

 hybrids promises good results. The hj^brids are made by taking 

 two buds, halving each, and grafting them into a stock. "VVliere 

 only one grows a combination of the characters of the two seems to 

 take place. During the winter and spring hybridizing work with 

 raspberries from many parts of the world was continued on an ex- 

 tensive scale, and much seed for planting the next season was secured. 

 The hybrid variety Sunbeam, previously reported as sent out from 

 the station, is winning much favor over a wide area of the Northwest 

 and is the hardiest raspberry so far produced. 



Rotation and fertilizer trials w^ere continued in the study of soil 

 fertility. The series of rotations contain each a leguminous crop, 



