DEPARTMENT OF FARM PRACTICE. 



Teaching Work. 



The number of students in the winter-course in General Agricul- 

 ture who took the work in Agronomy given by this department was 

 105, the number of regular and special students who took instruc- 

 tion in farm practice was 10, and there was one student doing grad- 

 uate work. The winter-course seemed to be more successful than 

 ever before, if the enthusiasm of the students in their work and in the 

 events connected with their stay at the College is an indication of 

 success. The afternoon work or practicum, however, suffered much 

 for want of a suitable place in which to conduct it. Some of the 

 time, afternoon sessions were held in the Auditorium, part of the 

 seats being removed to secure space for it. For a few sessions the use 

 of the Farm Corps laboratory was secured. 



The work in farm practice is arranged for students who do not 

 come from farms and, therefore, are not familiar with the common 

 farm operations. This instruction was given by the writer's assist- 

 ant, Mr. E. R. Minns, as successfully as the circumstances would per- 

 mit. The inherent difficulty of providing suitable work and equip- 

 ment at such hours as the students have available renders it an open 

 question whether an institution should attempt to provide much such 

 practice work and whether a student should attempt to secure prac- 

 tical experience at an institution while pursuing class-room studies. 



In addition to the above the writer has given a few lectures on 

 special crops to the class in Farm Crops. 



Investigation Work. 



The investigations being conducted by this department consist of 

 experiments with fertilizers for mangel-wurzel, 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 Col- 

 lege farm. 



Co-operative experiments have been conducted under the super- 

 vision of this department with 75 farmers, and the number of experi- 

 ments undertaken was 126. These experiments were along the fol: 

 lowing lines: potatoes, tests of varieties; corn, tests of varieties; soy- 



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