118 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the board of the marvelous assiduity with which Mr. Crozier applies! 

 himself to his work. He was painstaking and conscientious in details 

 to a degree that is seldom found among the most devoted scientific 

 workers. He was intense in his application, to the sacrifice of his health. 

 The excellence of his work has been demonstrated in the bulletins al- 

 ready issued from his pen and in the lines of work planned and begun 

 by him. 



For his successor, Professor J. D. Towar, for seven years connected 

 with the Khode Island Experiment Station, was chosen. He arrived 

 at the Station June 1, 1898 — too late to take part in planning the field 

 work of the season, but in time to carry the experiments to a successful 

 conclusion. By action of the board, Mr. Towar has been made agricul- 

 turist of the Station and a member of the Council. 



Early in the year Mr. Thorne Smith left us to do commercial work, 

 and later to become assistant chemist, of the Idaho Experiment Station. 

 Mr. L. S. Munson, a graduate of this College in the class of 1897, was 

 appointed to succeed him. 



The mailing list, or the list of people to whom the bulletins are sent 

 regularly, has grown rapidly during the year, until at the close of the 

 season — November, 1898 — it numbered over 24,000. This number may be 

 taken as a fair enumeration of the families to which our bulletins have 

 access. It is a reasonable supposition that the vast majority of these 

 families live upon farms, or, if living in cities or villages, own or operate 

 farms. The inUutnce which the Station exerts upon the agriculture of 

 the State is therefore growing and becoming an important factor in 

 the betterment of farming methods. 



Nearly all phases of the work on a diversified farm have received some 

 attention at the hands of the Experiment Station during the past year. 

 If the interests of the farmer have lain solely along the line of field crops, 

 the bulletins on "Fertilizer Analyses," "Sugar Beets in Michigan," "Some 

 Experiments in Corn Raising" and "Insects of the Year 1897" cannot fail 

 to have been of value to him. These bulletins have reported work not only 

 original but of so practical a character as to be applicable immediately to 

 the work that such farmer would have on hand. The results of experi- 

 ments along lines of live stock are relatively slow to mature. During the 

 year the dairy side of animal industry has received much attention. The 

 two bulletins of Mr. Marshall relating to the bacteria of the dairy and 

 pasteurization of milk have pointed out the friends and enemies of the 

 dairyman in the microscopic world, and the method by which the intelli- 

 gent butter or cheese maker may so control these minute but all-power- 

 ful forces as to secure their cooperation in the production of a first-class 

 product.' These bulletins have been in no wise compilations, but report 

 results of original investigations. So the bulletin on Feeding Dairy 

 Cows has brought together the observations made upon the behavior of 

 the College herd for several years, during which a record has been kept 

 both of the feed consumed and the milk and butter yielded by the indi- 

 vidual cows. 



The bulletin on "Normal Temperatures and the Tuberculin Test'' treats 

 of a subject of pressing interest to the live-stock breeders of the present 

 time. No experiments have ever been carried on, the results of which go 

 to disprove the proposition that the tuberculin test is the best diagnostic 

 agent for the detection of tuberculosis. The experiments of Mr. Marshall 



