80 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



At South Haven the fruit trees are now in full bearing and the report 

 of the Superintendent and Professor Taft shows in liow many ways the 

 vState derives benefit from the present and past work of the Station. 



The reports of the several divisions of the Station work filed herewith 

 and made a part of this report will set forth the work accomplished and 

 planned. They need little comment from me. Heretofore the work of the 

 Horticulturist has been devoted largely to variety tests of fruits and 

 vegetables. It is hoped that there may be a radical change in this respect 

 in the immediate future. While variety tests have a certain value, the 

 time has come when a scheme for more important lines of work should be 

 adopted. The South Haven Station now has fruit trees in full bearing 

 and the time of its greatest usefulness has but just begun. In the Upper 

 Peninsula the questions to be solved for the fruit growers are rather what 

 can we grow with hope of profit than a study of new principles and better 

 methods. 



Attention is called to the work of the Chemist in the matter of diges- 

 tion experiments and analyses of breakfast foods and commercial feeding 

 stuffs. The whole question of digestibility and its relation to actual food 

 values is still in the dark and it is the hope of the Chemist to furnish a 

 little data to aid in clearing up present uncertainties. In the matter of 

 breakfast foods, the American public has been led into many errors. 

 ^Vhile nearly or quite all of them have merit and are valuable additions 

 to our lists of available and easily prepared table supplies, they do not 

 possess the miraculous powers ascribed to some of them by the ardent and 

 sometimes unscrupulous advertisers. The truth concerning these foods 

 will be brought out and published in due time. In relation to commercial 

 feeding stuffs for domestic animals also the work of the chemist is of 

 great value. One bulletin has been published already and the work in 

 this direction is far from complete. Legislation is sorely needed to pro- 

 tect Michigan consumers from fraud. 



The Veterinarian has presented to him certain problems of unique im- 

 ])ortance. The presence of a widespread disease among the cattle of a 

 great section of the northern part of the lower peninsula calls for investi- 

 gation. The State Live Stock Sanitary Commission has initiated a study 

 of the disease by bringing to the College several animals afflicted for 

 study. The symptoms of the disease in question are those of starvation 

 and recovery seems to follow immediately on the ingestion of proper food. 

 Another problem of great importance to sheep feeders relates to the para- 

 sitic diseases of lambs and wethers put up for fattening. The Veterina- 

 rian has carried forward one set of experiments with this class of animals 

 but the results are held for confirmation. 



The time of the Bacteriologist has been taken up with planning the new 

 laboratory and moving into it. He has therefore little new work to report. 

 He has spent the last part of the year in Europe and will return in the 

 fall prepared to do still better service in advancing our knowledge of 

 bacteriology in its application to soils, live stock, and the home. 



The report of the Entomologist discloses fully and accurately the lines 

 of work he has undertaken and the results. 



The experiments with live stock have been limited to the feeding of a 

 carload of steers and a study of the feeding capacities of sheep and goats. 

 Dried beet pulp was fed to good advantage to certain pens of lambs and 

 its value indicated. The steers also received raw pulp and gave a good 

 account of it. 



