Ifift Eleventh Annual Report. 



various varieties of alfalfa, seeds have been obtained frotn various 

 parts of the United States, from Chile, Argentine,, Europe and 

 Turkestan, and these will be fully tested. 



ECONOMIC CACTI. 



The progress made in the cultivation of caeti r especially those 

 of economic importance is worthy of note. The plants in the 

 cactus garden in front of the main University building at Tucson 

 have been named, listed and labeled and a plan of the garden 

 made for the accurate location of a plant of any species growing 

 in the garden. It has been found to contain nearly one hundred 

 species of cacti about half of which are of the genus Opuntia. 



The beginnings of a new garden in which economic investi- 

 gations are to be made upon the Opuntias have been made in one 

 corner of the University grounds and one hundred and rifty 

 plants are now growing there representing a large number of 

 species. A number of these are plants consigned to the Station 

 by the Department ot Agriculture at Washington and were ob- 

 tained from Sicily, Algeria and South America where they have 

 been cultivated as forage and fruit-producing plants. It is not un- 

 likely that a number of these may sometime be profitably intro- 

 duced into many parts of Arizona, making it possible to turn to 

 account large areas of desert and otherwise nearly worthless land. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Inquiry has been made concerning the great prevalence of 

 smut upon sorghum in the region about Concho and it has been 

 recommended that the seed be freed from smut-spores by the use 

 of the hot water method before planting. This method has been 

 found effective as the spores must be in contact with the seed at 

 germination in order to produce the disease in the plant. The 

 method employed is to mix the seed, not more than a bushel at 

 a time, in water at ordinary temperature and skim off those that 

 float as they are frequently filled with spores that would fail to 

 be destroyed in hot water. Next, the seed is placed in a loose 

 sack and two large vessels are prepared containing water heated 

 to i35°F. as tested by the thermometer. Place the sack containing 



