250 EEPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



which has an important effect on the nutritive vahie of the milk. 

 A large amount of chemical work was done, including analj^ses of 

 blood, internal organs, skeletons, and meat. Marked chemical differ- 

 ences in the fat of the animals fed in different ways was observed. 

 The strength of the bones was also tested. The project on the effect 

 of feeding different amounts of digestible protein to cows for a long 

 period was conducted on the same plan as heretofore. 



Under the Hatch-fund work was pursued in horticulture on apples, 

 including tests of varieties, a study of grafts from productive and 

 nonproductive trees of different varieties, scion selection, and other 

 problems of a like nature. Field experiments were made in the 

 crossing of cucumbers, including a study of unit characters. Experi- 

 ments were also made with strawberries, including breeding by se- 

 lection and in growing plants in pots and transplanting them to the 

 field so as to give fruit the first season after transplanting. 



The chemist published rcvsults obtained in studies on the avail- 

 ability of organic nitrogen, continued work in cooperation with the 

 Rhode Island and Connecticut stations on a method for showing the 

 availability of nitrogen in commercial fertilizers, and gave atten- 

 tion to the control work of the station in the same way as heretofore. 



The dairyman completed experiments in making ice cream and 

 published a bulletin setting forth the results. Experiments on the 

 manufacture of cottage cheese were also made. 



The work in forestry, which was in charge of the State forester, 

 included the material enlargement of the forest-tree nursery, the 

 publication of a bulletin on forest fires, the prej^aration of one on 

 methods of cutting, and the making of experimental plantings. 



In addition to the cooperative work already mentioned, the station 

 completed its work, carried on with the New York station at Geneva, 

 on the bacterial soft rots of certain vegetables, the results being pub- 

 lished at some length in Bulletin 147 of the s-tation. With this 

 department the station cooperates in the Morgan horse-breeding 

 enterprise at Middlebury and in the study of Phytophthora and dis- 

 ease resistance in potatoes. Some of the station officials made ad- 

 dresses during the year at farmers' institutes and other agricultural 

 gatherings, but no definite policy of extension work was pursued. 



The following publications were received from the station during 

 the year: Bulletins 142, Plant Diseases — Potato Spraying; 143, Com- 

 mercial Fertilizers — The Service of a Fertilizer Control — Soil Phy- 

 siography ; 144, Feeding Stuffs Inspection — Concerning Commercial 

 Feeding Stuffs; 145, Vermont Shrubs and Woody Vines; 146, The 

 Grass and Clover-seed Trade in Vermont in 1907-1909; 147, The 

 Bacterial Soft Rots of Certain Vegetables ; 148, A Bacterial Soft Rot 

 of Muskmelon, Caused by Bacillvs 7nelo7iis n. sp. ; 149, A Practical 

 Method of Killing Witch Grass; 150, The Role of Anesthetics and 



