TEXAS. 243 



tions are to be situated have contributed liberally for their establish- 

 ment, in some instances donating the land and erecting the necessary 

 buildings and improvements. 



Under the xVdams fund the horticulturist continued the plant- 

 breeding work on the blackberry and dewberry. A large lot of seed- 

 lings, including about 100 hybrids, have about reached bearing age 

 and large numbers of other seedlings and hybrids are ready to be 

 transplanted to the open ground. 



Work on the soil project was actively pursued, special attention 

 being given to the three essential plant-food elements and to humus 

 and soil acidity, and part of the results were published. In Bidletin 

 125, a preliminary report on this work, the chemical composition of 

 certain types of soil occurring in a number of the counties of the 

 State is recorded. Results presented in Bulletin 126 of the station, 

 as determined in about 200 pot experiments, indicate, among other 

 things, a close relation between the yields of corn and the quantity 

 of i^hosphoric acid in the soil, and also show that the phosphoric 

 acid removed by the crop in percentages of the active phosphoric acid 

 decreases with the quantity of active phosphoric acid in the soil. In 

 connection with this project, pot experiments were carried on in 

 which the amounts of water percolating through different types of 

 soil and the losses of plant food and fertilizers as shown by the drain- 

 age water were determined. 



As a result of changes in the department of entomology, the project 

 on the control of plum curculio on peach trees was discontinued and 

 the work on the southern grain louse was completed for publication. 

 A study of the physiological effect of poAvdered lead arsenate on 

 beetles of the order Rhyncophora and with special reference to the 

 cottonboll weevil was begun. The veterinarian continued investi- 

 gations of swamp fever, giving special attention to methods of infec- 

 tion and means of control. Attempts were made to cause the disease 

 by transmission of blood, urine, and bowel contents. The plant 

 pathologist started on a line of work in the laboratory and in the 

 field to determine whether inoculation with pure cultures of Pseu- 

 domonas radicicola increases the number of nodules on the roots 

 when grown in four distinct soil types occurring in large areas in the 

 State, and Avhether the etTect of inoculation varies according to these 

 soil types and to what it may be due. 



In addition to the Adams-fund investigations, the following im- 

 portant lines of work were carried on with the Hatch fund. The 

 deiDartment of agronomy laid out in plats a 52-acre field and con- 

 ducted experiments including tests of 30 varieties of cotton and 19 

 varieties of corn, fertilizer experiments with cotton and corn, ear-to- 

 row breeding experiments with corn in which prize ears were com- 

 pared with ordinary corn from the same counties, experiments with 



