33 DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 



On account of the change of time for making the annual report from 

 September 30 to June 30, a report of the field experiments is necessarily 

 deferred. 



As to our future plans for farm experiments, it seems to me wise to 

 continue for some years the feeding experiments with cattle, and I respectfully 

 recommend that measures be adopted to secure specimens of different breeds 

 of sheep and swine, as well as of cattle for such experimental feeding. 



The dairy interests are coming to be more and more prominent in our 

 State. Their importance is generally conceded, and I recommend that in 

 planning our experimental work for the coming year, they receive a fair 

 share of attention. 



The growing of a sufficient acreage of some of the grasses and clovers 

 that have not been tested here in actual feeding, to make such a trial possi- 

 ble, is also suggested, as well as the testing of a mixture of grasses and 

 clovers for pernianent pasture, to compare with those we now have that have 

 never been plowed, but are covered with a thick sward of June grass and 

 white clover. 



This question of the value of permanent pastures is an importan one, 

 especially to us, as we have from sixty to eighty acres that annually yield a 

 large amount of nutritious grasses; but the surface is uneven, and the ques- 

 tion has been shall we plow, cultivate and level, and make the field more 

 inviting to the eye, but at the expense for years of the yield and quality of 

 its grass product. 



I have submitted this question to quite a number of our leading farmers, 

 and their advice, almost without exception, has been in favor of retaining 

 the old permanent sward. 



Grass is coming to be of more and more importance in our agriculture, and 

 the testing of new sorts to determine their adaptability to our soil and cli- 

 mate, and their value in the production of beef and dairy products, is work 

 in the right direction, and must eventually result in greatly increasing the 

 carrying capacity of our fields. 



THE THIED ANNUAL SALE OF CATTLE 



was held on March 23. The weather was propitious, the attendance large, 

 embracing many of our leading breeders, and the bidding spirited, especially 

 on some of the younger animals. The average prices realized were fully up to 

 our expectations, and the kindly feeling of the cattle men present attested to 

 their interest in and appreciation of the efforts made to develop and improve 

 the college herds. There is, I think, no doubt in the minds of the members 

 of the Board of Agriculture of the success of these sales, not alone in disposing 

 of the surplus stock, but also in attracting the attention of many of the 

 citizens of our State who would not be likely to know much of us if not called 

 here by a public occasion of this sort. They come to the cattle sale, they 

 see the college and learn something of its educational work, its aims and what 

 it purports to be. We must use every means to enlist the attention and the 

 hearty support of the farmers in this college which was organized and is to 

 live and prosper only as it is true to their interests in tangible and intel- 

 ligent forms. The following is a list of the animals sold, purchasers and 

 prices paid: — 



