MINNESOTA. 119 



Reports of the receipts and expenditures for the United States 

 funds have been rendered in accordance with the schedules pre- 

 scribed by this Department and have been approved. 



The Michigan Station is doing a large amount of work for the 

 improvement and development of the agriculture of the State, and 

 has a strong hold on its constituents, with whom it maintains very 

 close relations. A conservative policy is being pursued which is 

 resulting in a fortunate combination of directly practical work with 

 the more thorough investigations. 



MINNESOTA. 



Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Minnesota, »S'^ 



Anthony Park, St. FauL 



Department of the University of Minnesota. 



W. M. Liggett, Director. 



At the Minnesota Station, the department of agricultural chemis- 

 try has been expanded to include a new division dealing with soils 

 and fertilizers. The work with soils will be largely confined to a 

 study of soils of reduced fertility and means for their improvement, 

 especial attention being given to the organic constituents. A ten-year 

 series of field tests has shown that rapid and heavy losses of humus 

 and nitrogen result under exclusive grain farming, while under stock 

 farming and crop rotation these losses are minimized. The frequent 

 shriveling of cereals, which has been attributed to drought, frost, and 

 other factors, has in many cases been found to be a direct result of 

 unbalanced fertilizers. Studies have been begun on the digestibility 

 and feeding value of emmer, the protein content of various forage 

 crops, and chemical methods of determining available plant food 

 versus actual field check experiments. Nutrition Avork has been con- 

 tinued in cooperation with this Office, the principal studies being 

 investigations of the digestibility and nutritive value of flour when 

 prepared in other forms than bread, such as crackers, biscuits, pan- 

 cakes, and cookies. 



The veterinarian has been making extensive investigations of the 

 physiological aspects of stable ventilation. It is found that steers of 

 sound health can })e subjected to close confinement and a high carbon 

 dioxid content in the air wiithout apparent injury, and the conclusion 

 is drawn that the importance of ventilation is from hygienic con- 

 siderations and as a preventive of the spread of contagious diseases, 

 rather than because of any deleterious influence of an excess of carbon 

 dioxid itself. Studies have also been made of the means of transmis- 

 sion of tuberculosis, and about seventy calves have been inoculated 

 with von Behring's tubercle vaccine to determine immunity. Under 



