334 ANNUAL EEPORTS OF DEPAETMENT OP AGEICULTURE. 



have been found to succeed. The groAving of celery for market pur- 

 poses has been demonstrated as profitable if proper care is exercised 

 in spraying the growing crop. The Glenwood substation is main- 

 tained in cooperation with Territorial authorities. 



The Territorial marketing division reports a volume of business 

 amounting to $139,519.05 for the year, 474 individuals having con- 

 signed their produce to the division for sale. As the total sales for 

 the first year (the division, which is largely supported by Territorial 

 funds, was established and placed under the direction of the station 

 July 1, 1913) amounted to only $26,500, the increase shown for the 

 past year is gratifying. The experimental features embodied in this 

 enterprise haA'ing been largely worked out and the work of the divi- 

 sion being now simply a commercial undertaking, its relations with 

 the station were terminated June 30, 1917, and it will continue to be 

 operated solely under Territorial authority. 



The extension work of the station, now being developed as rapidly 

 as possible, receives a manifest approval which is very gratifying. 

 It is impossible to reach all localities and nationalities with the pres- 

 ent resources, but through cooperators, demonstration farms, and 

 personal visits of the superintendent of extension and his collabora- 

 tors the advantages of diversified agriculture are being given wide 

 publicity. The local papers and a series of emergency publications 

 are also used to spread information. The station had a large share 

 in a movement to start school gardens and boys' and girls' clubs, 

 which were conducted for the first time in the islands during the past 

 year. 



Porto Rico Station. 



With the increased appropriation granted the Porto Rico station 

 the extension work was greatly developed, and it is now being very 

 successfully carried on tliroughout the island. In connection with 

 this work cooperative demonstration experiments were st-arted in 

 many sections of Porto- Rico not hitherto reached. These give op- 

 portunity for testing new crops and new varieties introduced through 

 the station. Particular attention has been paid to the testing of such 

 food crops as cowpeas, soy beans, peanuts, and beans, and of forage 

 plants, among them velvet beans, sorghums, Sudan grass, Napier 

 grass, etc., active interest in the production of these crops having 

 been so aroused that all are being extensively planted. Cowpeas, 

 which have been found adapted to some of the poorer lands, are be- 

 coming an important factor in feeding the people of Porto Rico. On 

 bare lands cowpeas and soy beans are the best crops for immediate 

 results. These may be followed by kafir, sorghum, and Sudan grass 

 with excellent effect, not only in returns from these crops, but in 

 bringing the land under permanent culture and in preventing fur- 

 ther erosion of the soil. Some 200 acres of hill land, denuded of 

 forests, has been put under experiment by the station to see if such 

 areas can be profitably reclaimed. 



The station has entered upon an active campaign to improve the 

 economic plants of the island through the introduction of new crops 

 and through plant breeding by seiection and crossing. Such work, 

 it is believed, will noticeably improve Porto Rican agriculture. 



As many of the soils of the island lack fertility the chemists of 

 the station have given special ?ittention to soil investigations, par- 



