EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS 



99 



KEPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 



There have been issued in the year ending June 30, 1901, the following 

 bulletins: 



One special bulletin has been issued in the same period, making the 

 fourteenth in that series. It was entitled ^'Foul Brood" and was written 

 by Mr. John M. Rankin, the Station Apiarist. 



I submit, herewith, copies of the bulletins mentioned, with the reports 

 of the heads of the various divisions. These reports and bulletins will 

 give a complete and accurate idea of the work of the station during 

 the year. It hardly seems wise or necessary, therefore, for me to go 

 over the work in detail. 



The Agriculturist has carried forward the investigations relating to 

 sugar beets, reaching results in the matter of fertilizers of extreme 

 value to Michigan farmers, and conducting other experiments not yet 

 concluded concerning other phases of the work that must produce re- 

 sults of e(}ual importance. Capital is still flowing into Michigan for 

 investment in sugar factories. It seems important, therefore, to the 

 Station to continue these investigations on a more extended scale. In 

 pursuance of this policy, with the consent of the State Board and by 

 the courtesy of the Farm Department of the College, five acres of beets 

 have been planted in the spring of 11)01, on the west i)art of field No. 12. 



In connection with the sugar beet business an imi)ortant matter is the 

 disposal of the beet pulp. But very little of this valuable cattle feed 

 is at present utilized. It remains in large, rapidly decaying piles close 

 to the factories, nnd becoming a nuisance, if not a menace to health. 

 Because hay and grain are comparatively clieaj) in this country it is 

 hardly to be expected that beet pulji will come into general use as 

 quickly as it did in Germany, where cattle foods are all high. More- 

 over, as the ])ulp comes from the factory there arc never more than 

 ten j)ouiids of actual feeding material in one hundred pounds of the 

 product. The transportation cost is therefore very heavy, when com- 

 pared with the efficient feed obtained. No question, therefore, is of more 

 imi)ortance as far as the work of the Station is concerned than those 

 relating to the feeding of beet pulp. Some tests were made during 

 the winter of 1000-1901, but the results are not at all conclusive. At 



