REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 137 



blocks, which is proving very efficient and cheaper in construction 

 than concrete where sand and gi-avel have to be shipped in. 



In testing different methods of preparing corn for hogs, the Iowa 

 Station found that the most satisfactory results were secured from 

 feeding dry ear corn until the hogs weighed about 200 pounds. For 

 heavier hogs soaked shelled corn gave the most economical gains of all 

 the forms in which com was fed. In experiments in hogging down 

 corn this station has produced pork at less than 3 cents a pound. 



At the New York Cornell Experiment Station it was found that 

 mangels raised at a cost of $4 per ton and judiciously used to take 

 the place of one-half of the grain ordinarily fed are profitable in 

 feeding the dairy cow. 



The results of shelter experiments conducted at the Pennsylvania 

 Station showed that steers fed in an open shed on succulent rations, 

 including silage, made more rapid and cheaper gains and attained 

 a higher finish than similar cattle fed in the same way in the base- 

 ment of a barn. 



Along horticultural lines studies at the Missouri Station on the 

 dormant period of plants have shown that hard freezing or severe 

 drought will force the development of buds, and that anything that 

 will delay ripening will cause a prolonged resting period. Late 

 growth due to fertilizing and cultivation has resulted in heavj'- 

 crops of fruit where frosts destroyed those in orchards which were 

 permitted to mature in a normal manner. Peach trees pruned ac- 

 cording to the methods advocated by the station were made to 

 produce two additional crops in eight years. Last year the Jonathan 

 apple orchard on the horticultural grounds returned over $300 per 

 acre, while unsprayed Jonathan apples in the neighborhood had 

 almost no marketable fruit. In a demonstration experiment a 

 sprayed acre of Jonathan apples in a commercial apple orchard pro- 

 duced more marketable apples than the remaining 139 acres which 

 were not sprayed. 



The Arizona Station has worked out two methods of artificial 

 ripening of dates, which will largely overcome the failure of the 

 fruit to ripen sufficiently early and its tendency to sour in damp 

 weather during the ripening period. One method depends upon 

 stimulation of the ripening process by chemicals at ordinary tem- 

 peratures; the other method consists in heating under controlled 

 conditions of moisture. Both .methods are i:)racticed and give a 

 finished product of high quality. The Arizona Station now recom- 

 mends the planting of Deglet Xoor palms in the Salton Basin, along 

 the lower Colorado, and in southern Arizona up to the altitude of 

 1,200 feet. 



