BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 335 



LoGGED-OFF LAND iN%'ESTiGATioNS. — The work of gathering data 

 relating to logged-off lands has continued during the past year in. 

 charge of Mr. Harry Thompson, Expert, in cooperation with the 

 Washington Agricultural Experiment Station, the Washington State 

 University, and the agricultural experiment stations of Wisconsin 

 and Minnesota. A great mass of additional data has been gathered 

 concerning the practicability and cost of methods now in use. Im- 

 portant facts have been ascertained concerning the use of blasting 

 materials. Some promising new methods for burning stumps have 

 been devised. These methods appear to be cheaper than the use of 

 powder and the donkey engine, although they are slower. They seem 

 to be especially adapted for use by men of small capital who can da 

 their own clearing on their own land. Full details of the results 

 obtained in these investigations will be given in bulletins to be pub- 

 lished during the current year. It is expected that this work will be 

 brought to a close near the end of the present fiscal year. 



Plans for future work. — No radical changes are contemplated in 

 the lines of work now in progress in the Office of Farm Management. 

 As conditions permit, it is expected that the farm-management dis- 

 trict work, the farm-survey work, and the investigations relating to 

 cost accounting on the farm will be extended into sections other than 

 those where they are now conducted. 



FARMERS' COOPERATIVE DEMONSTRATION" WORK. 



The Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work, under the direc- 

 tion of Dr. S. A. Knapp, Special Agent, has been further extended 

 during the past fiscal year. Within that period the number of agents 

 employed in the work has increased from 322 to 437, while the num- 

 ber of counties in which the work is being conducted has increased 

 from 312 to 455. During the season of 1909, 12,500 boys and more 

 than 52,000 men were under instruction. In the season of 1910, 46,000 

 boys are in the boys' corn clubs under direct instructions from this 

 office, and approximately 65,000 men are also working under instruc- 

 tion. Preparations are being made still further to extend the work 

 in the fall of 1910. 



Results of the work in 1909. — Careful and accurate reports have 

 been obtained from a large number of those instructed during the 

 season of 1909, to ascertain the results of the work as compared with 

 the ordinary farming methods used in the same community. Regard- 

 less of the adverse weather and climatic conditions prevailing through- 

 out the South during the season of 1909, the results obtained have 

 proved very satisfactory. Everywhere largely increased yields of 

 cotton and corn have resulted from the improved methods worked out 

 by this Department, as compared with the yields obtained under 

 ordinary methods; 



Climatic and weather conditions in the Southern States. — 

 The season of 1909 and the spring of 1910 have both been peculiarly 

 adverse seasons from the crop standpoint. The spring of 1909 saw a 

 large emergence of the boll weevil over the major portion of the terri- 

 tory infested, and especially is this true of southern Mississippi and 



