8 ~ Report of the President. 



co-operative experiments were also carried on with farmers through- 

 out the State, including 229 new experiments started iduring the year 

 and 212 others continued from the previous year. 



II. Department of Farm Practice. — The investigations being con- 

 ducted by this department consist of experiments with fertilizers for 

 mangel-wurzel, a comparison of the cost of producing dry matter in 

 crops grown for silage and in root crops, and a study of the durability 

 of roofing materials used on the College farms. Co-operative experi- 

 ments (total 126) have also been conducted with seventy-five farmers 

 along the following lines: Potatoes, test of varieties; corn, tests of 

 varieties ; soybeans, grown in corn for silage ; spraying for the de- 

 struction of wild mustard ; a test of mangels as a substitute for pur- 

 chased concentrated feeds. The purchase by the University of addi- 

 tional farm lands, as mentioned above, will add greatly to the facilities 

 of this department but like nearly every other department in the Col- 

 lege, it is seriously cramped for room in which to carry on the work 

 of instruction to students. 



III. Department of Experimental Plant Breeding.- — As this department 

 was not organized until April, 1907, the experiments have been under 

 way but one season but a number of investigations have been started 

 which should prove of great value to the agricultural interests of the 

 State. New York is a State of diversified agriculture but the hay 

 crop far outranks all others in total acreage and value of product, 

 reaching in 1907 a total of 4,717,000 acres with a valuation of $93,388,- 

 000. Timothy constitutes much the larger portion of the hay crop 

 and probably greatly exceeds in value any other crop grown in the 

 State. Accordingly the efforts of this department have been directed 

 toward the improvement of this crop by proper methods of breeding 

 and selection, looking not only to increased productivity, but also to 

 the development of rust resistant varieties, this disease having 

 wrought considerable damage to the crop during the past year in 

 every section of the State. It is of course too early to look for defi- 

 nite results from this work but the progress of the experiments thus 

 far gives every reason to believe that improved varieties will result 

 which will be of s^reat value. 



In like manner experiments have been undertaken looking to the 

 production of early races of dent corn, this being recognized as the 

 most important problem in corn-breeding in New York, while still 

 other investigations have in view the improvement of the oat, wheat, 

 and potato crops, and of other forage crops than timothy. But the line 

 of scientific investigation that is receiving most attention is the study 



