EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 119 



call attention to the dangers surrounding the use of the test either in 

 incompetent hands or in the hands of those who have neither desire nor 

 opportunity to note the normal temperatures of the animals for a suffi- 

 cient time previous to the hypodermic injection, and to the possibility 

 of mistaken diagnosis, owing to the possibility of a normal rise of tem- 

 perature without the use of tuberculin. There seems to be no justifica- 

 tion for the demand that all animals responding to the test shall be imme- 

 diately slaughtered, because there is no demonstration of the claim that 

 all animals reacting are dangerous either to their stable mates or to the 

 human family. On the other hand, so subtle and fatal is consumption 

 that if tuberculin demonstrates the probability of the presence of the dis- 

 ease that fact is enough to condemn the animal to isolation and to pre- 

 vent the sale of either the milk and butter produced by it or its carcass. 



There has been during the summer of 1898 an unprecedented loss of 

 swine, not only in the southern tier of counties, but in the State at large. 

 Epidemics have broken out in first one locality and then another, and the 

 total loss has been large. The symptoms have been such as to lead the 

 local veterinarians to pronounce the outbreaks hog cholera. I call your 

 attention to the report of Dr. Waterman and Mr. Marshall upon these 

 outbreaks and the results of their examinations of materials collected 

 and their inability to find the germ of the usual form of this disease. The 

 Station, through its veterinary department, is making an examination of 

 this question — leading, I hope, to results of the utmost consequence to 

 swine breeders. It seems evident that we have to deal not with the form 

 of so-called hog cholera produced by the well-recognized germ described 

 in the bulletins and reports of the Division of Animal Industry of the 

 Department of Agriculture at Washington, but with outbreaks in which, 

 while the symptoms are suspiciously similar to those of hog cholera, the 

 causes are various and, unfortunately, widespread. It is the aim of the 

 investigations now in progress to discover these causes and suggest pre- 

 ventive measures. 



Michigan is by reputation one of the first states in the Union in respect 

 both to the quantity of tree and small fruits produced and their quality. 

 The Horticultural Department has issued bulletins during the year on 

 topics relating to the vegetable and small fruit garden, as well as to the 

 orchard and nursery. The results of the work at South Haven become 

 yearly of more and more value as the plantations of fruit trees come into 

 bearing. The appearance annually of new pests in the shape of insect 

 enemies and fungus diseases keeps the zoological, botanical and horticul- 

 tural departments continually on the alert to discover these enemies on 

 their first approach and to find means for combating them. 



The work with sugar beets has been continued during the season of 

 1898, taking as the topic for investigation the cost of production. The 

 building and successful operation of the beet sugar factory at Bay City 

 seemed certain to create increased interest in this subject and to call for 

 further attention to it on the part of the Station. The results of the 

 experiments conducted in 1897 were published since the last report of the 

 Station was written, in Bulletin 150. This bulletin showing as it did that 

 the average per cent of sugar in the Michigan grown beets was higher 

 than ii. beets grown in any other state of the Union save one, was of 

 great value to those sections of the State interested in establishing sugar 



