262 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



were provided for the dairy department by the construction of a two- 

 story and basement building (PI. VIII, fig. 1) to afford additional 

 laboratory space. The new equipment for the poultry department 

 includes a general-utility building, breeding pens, portable colony 

 houses, and a breeding house of modern design and construction (PI. 

 VIII, fig. 2). The agricultural buildings were connected to a new 

 central heating station, and the old heating plant was turned over to 

 the dairy department to furnish increased facilities for its different 

 lines of work. Quarters for the newly organized departments of 

 experimental breeding and veterinary science were assigned in the 

 new stock pavilion, which was erected during the preceding year, and 

 laboratory facilities for these departments are in process of construc- 

 tion. The interior of the soils building was remodeled, and it was 

 decided to construct entirely new quarters for the horticultural de- 

 partment, which occupied space in the soils building. In order to 

 prevent interference with the work of the horticultural department, 

 four greenhouses connected with a one-story and basement brick 

 structure were erected. In addition to these a small pathological 

 laboratory was constructed for the department of plant pathology. 

 Miscellaneous farm buildings, erected at the university and Hill 

 farms, included a two-story litter shed and sheds for housing wagons, 

 implements, and machinery. A concrete silo (PI. IX, fig. 2) was 

 built on the Hill farm with a new type of mold devised by the agri- 

 cultural engineering department. 



The legislature of 1909 passed an act permitting the establishment 

 of two permanent branch experiment stations, and steps were taken 

 toward the establishment of one of these stations on an 80-acre tract 

 of land adjacent to the town of Spooner, in Washington County. 

 The work to be attempted there will be largely soil improvement. 

 For this same purpose a demonstration substation was started at 

 Ellis Junction, in Marinette County. The reclamation of marsh 

 lands on the university farm, undertaken this year, will add greatly 

 to the land resources of the institution. 



Work on all the Adams-fund projects of the station was actively 

 pursued. The study of the mineral requirements of growing animals, 

 conducted cooperatively by the agricultural-chemistry and animal- 

 husbandry departments, was continued principally along the line of 

 the influence of the lime supply on the development of the skeleton of 

 the progeny. It appeared that the skeleton development of the 

 young as to lime content, as well as size, is maintained in the pigs 

 regardless of the character of the lime supply present in the food. 

 The lime was fed in these experiments in the form of ground lime- 

 stone or calcium carbonate, as floats or calcium phosphate, and in 

 ground alfalfa. The floats proved superior to the ground limestone, 

 which did not serve so well in making bone or in retaining the phos- 



