EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS 101 



The mailinf; list is increasing by leaps and bounds, and now exceeds 

 thirty thousand names on the regular permanent list. Within two 

 years the names have been gone over carefully and such names as do 

 not represent actual living citizens have been dropped. Through the 

 Institutes and the addresses of members of the College faculty the 

 people of the State are becoming well acquainted with the Station, and 

 receive our publications. This wide acquaintance brings in its train a 

 voluminous correspondence to every member of the staff. It is not wide 

 of the mark to say that as far as immediate effects are concerned the 

 Station benefits Michigan farmers almost as much through answers 

 to questions as through the bulletins themselves. 



It naturally follows from a wide correspondence that experts from 

 the Experiment Station are called to furnish information about insects 

 and fungus diseases of plants, about diseases of live stock, and, in 

 fact, along all lines of farm work. So widely is the value of this expert 

 assistance appreciated that the railroads carry the Director of the 

 Station free over their lines, and the Pere Marquette railroad goes still 

 farther and grants a pass, which carries members of the Station staff 

 to any point on their line. The thanks of the Board, of the members 

 of the staff, and of the people of the State at large are due the rail- 

 roads for their generositv in this respect. 



C. D. SMITH, 



Director. 

 Agricultural College, Mich. 

 June 30, 1901. 



REPOKT OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 



Prof. Clinton D. f>mith, Director of Experiment Station: 



Dear Sir — I herewith submit the report of the Agricultural Field 

 Experiments for the year ending June 30, 1901: 



The work of llie Department for the past year has been largely along 

 the lines begun in previous years. The co-operative soil test experi- 

 ments with fertilizers, have been terminated, giving results largely of a 

 negative character. 



The remote location of these experiments from the Central Station, 

 the traveling expense and the larger amount of the time of the Agri- 

 culturists given in installing and visiting the experiments and harvesting 

 and weighing th(^ crojis are serious obstacles in the way of_ successfully 

 and satisfactorily prosecuting such tests. Then, too, it is diiticult to find 

 farmers who can devote the time to give such work the complete atten- 

 tion it demands. Not only is it ditlicult for them to devote the time, 

 but their large fields, h«M'ds and flocks giving continual promise of money 

 returns, detract from the interest olTered by a few square rods where 

 the only return will be a handful of products and the lesson of the 



