240 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



a fact which, fortunately, is coming to be more generally 

 understood and appreciated, namely, that often the inquiry 

 which on the surface appears to be the least practical is 

 actually the most useful. The success of the Connecticut 

 Experiment Station has been made possible by the recogni- 

 tion of that principle. It has, therefore, devoted itself to the 

 higher research which has had for its object the discovery 

 of the laws which underlie the right practice of agriculture. 

 In so far as the station has been successful in this way will its 

 work have a lasting value. 



Some of the investigations undertaken by the station in 

 its early years were carried on only a short time, and were 

 then given up in order that more attention might be given to 

 other work which seemed more important. On the other 

 hand, some lines of inquiry have been continued from year 

 to year since the station was established. Thus for the most 

 part the investigations of each year form part of a consecu- 

 tive series. The principal inquiries that have been thus 

 continued and are still in progress have to do with various 

 problems regarding the nutrition of plants, animals, and 

 man, and with the bacteriology of the dairy. . Some account 

 of the nature, object, and methods of these inquiries has been 

 given in these meetings from year to year. I trust, however, 

 that you will pardon me if I refer to some of the things which 

 have been cited in this place before in order to give you a 

 general view of the work of the Storrs Station. Such a gen- 

 eral view may be found in the report of the station for the 

 year 1899. I read: "The principal inquiries now being 

 conducted by the station have to do with the nutrition of 

 plants, animals, and man, and with the bacteriology of the 

 dairy. During the year 1900 they have included experiments 

 on the effects of fertilizers upon the growth and composition 

 of plants, studies of the rations fed to milch cows, experiments 

 upon the ripening of cream, studies of bovine tuberculosis, 

 and investigations on the food nutrition of man." 



The field and pot experiments included tests with ferti- 

 lizers, soil tests, especially nitrogen experiments, and ex- 

 periments with forage crops. In reference to the dairy we 

 have conducted experiments on a variety of subjects of which 

 I will speak more in detail later on. Some features of that 

 work constitute a new departure of the station to which I 

 wash to call especial attention. 



