Report of the President. 7 



ment Station at Cornell University is very varied and extensive. For 

 a complete description of it I beg to refer you to the accompanying 

 reports of the Director and the heads of the several departments, 

 which are to be regarded as an integral part of this report. Instruc- 

 tion and research in agriculture are necessarily expensive. The Fed- 

 eral Government holds the Stations to strict accountability for all 

 their expenditures, w^hich are regularly reported with expenditures 

 itemized. This report includes a statement of the expenditure of 

 State funds, which are all carefully guarded by the State Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture. The list of the staff of instruction in the New 

 York State College of Agriculture and the Federal Experiment Sta- 

 tion on September 30, 1908, is also given. And for further informa- 

 tion there are appended the series of bulletins of the Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, Nos. 250 to 258 inclusive, the Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station circulars, Nos. i to 3 inclusive, the Cornell Reading- 

 Course for Farmers leaflets, Series VIII. Nos. 36 to 40 inclusive, the 

 Cornell Readmg-Course for Farmers' Wives leaflets, Series VI, Nos. 

 26 to 28, th-e Home Nature-Study Course leaflets, new series. Vol. IV, 

 Nos. I to 4 inclusive, and the Cornell Rural School leaflets. Vol. I, 

 Nos. 2 to 9 inclusive. 



The departmental reports may be summarized as follows : 



I. Department of Farm Crops. — Probably the greatest immediate re- 

 turns for the money invested in this department are secured from the 

 farm survey work which is directed (i) to the study of specific crops 

 and (2) to the study of farming as a business. Under the first head 

 forty-seven co-operate experiments in testing grass mixtures and in 

 the methods of treatment of pastures have been started and the de- 

 partment is now taking up the study of pasture conditions throughout 

 the State preparatory to increasing the number of experiments in this 

 line. Experiments have also been undertaken to determine the cause 

 and remedy for clover crop failures but the most important research 

 work of the year was the agricultural survey of Tompkins county, of 

 which the field work is now practically completed, and it is proposed 

 to extend this work to other sections of the State covering areas which 

 will represent most of the types of farm conditions in New York. 

 This work is of the second type mentioned above. 



This department gave instruction to 203 registered students dur- 

 ing the year while in the field of extension work the staff devoted 

 about one-fourth of its time to answering farmers' letters in addition 

 to giving numerous lectures at farmers' meetings. A large number of 



