REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 139 



of the machine in a 10 per cent solution of common salt between milk- 

 ings was more efficacious than steaming. The germ content of the 

 milk was found to be determined largely by the efficiency of the air 

 filters of the machine. 



The principles underlying the making of ice cream and the factors 

 which influence the process and the product were studied extensively 

 at the Vermont Station, and an epoch-making bulletin was issued on 

 the subject. The Iowa Station published a bulletin on a new and 

 healthful frozen dairy product worked out by the dairy department 

 of the station, and named lacto. 



In the Eastern States the work of the stations continues to indi- 

 cate the advisability and practicability of growing alfalfa in many 

 sections. Last year the New Jersey Station's alfalfa field of 10 

 acres, seeded the year before, produced a total of GO tons of hay. 

 The New York Cornell Station in studying the relation of lime to 

 the growth of this crop found that the protein content of alfalfa 

 grown on lime soil is markedly greater than that of plants grown 

 on soil in need of lime. In the particular experiments the difference 

 amounted to 88 pounds of protein per ton of alfalfa hay. It was 

 also observed that the growth of alfalfa increased the nitrifying 

 power of the soil for at least certain periods in the growth of the crop. 



The Nebraska Station, in studies of the water requirements of 

 plants by a new metliod perfected by the station, has found in two 

 dry years that there was a distinct economy of water with narrow- 

 leaved corn as compared with broad-leaved. The strains with a 

 high leaf area yielded 43.6 bushels per acre, while those with a low 

 leaf area produced 52.1 bushels. The Delaware Station states that 

 a fall growth of crimson clover may furnish 50 to 100 pounds of 

 nitrogen per acre and be profitable even though the crop is winter- 

 killed, and that the first month's growth in the spring usually 

 produced about one-third of the total yield of nitrogen. It was 

 determined that when the crop was removed 35 to 40 per cent of 

 the nitrogen was left in stubble and roots. 



The New Jersey Station has worked out a bacteriological method 

 of determining the availability of nitrogenous fertilizers which 

 promises to be of great practical value. It is based upon the rapidity 

 with which the nitrogen of such fertilizers is converted into ammonia 

 by bacteria. 



THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS. 



The promotion of agricultural education has become a world-wide 

 movement. There is now scarcely a civilized country in which no 

 provision is made for specific practical instruction in agriculture, 

 and wherever governments are establishing universities they are pro- 



