146 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



OREGON. 



Oregon Experiment Station, CorvaUis. 

 Department of Oregon State Agricultural College. 

 • James Withycombe, M. Agr.. Director. 



The Oregon Station has continued its work upon the advantage 

 and importance of crop rotations, which increase and conserve soil 

 fertility, in contrast to the exhaustive system of summer fallowing so 

 Avidely practiced under the present system of grain farming. Pot 

 tests have been made to study the effect of the bare fallow and differ- 

 ent rotations on soil fertility, especially as regards the nitrogen con- 

 tent, and experiments with soiling crops and various pasture and 

 other forage plants have been carried on with a view to increasing 

 the home growing of feeds and thereby encouraging dairying and 

 animal production. 



About ninety varieties of vetch have been tested, of which some 

 have shown marked possibilities as forage crops. Grown with oats in 

 rotation with clover, corn, and wheat, vetch has proved exceptionally 

 useful, and a mixture of vetch and rye has given good yields as an 

 early soiling crop. Breeding experiments to increase the i)rotein con- 

 tent have produced individual plants containing 25. .52 per cent of 

 protein in the dry material. Considerable progress has been made in 

 determining the feeding value of steamed and unsteamed vetch silage 

 and corn silage, in the hope that dairymen might be able to substitute 

 vetch in part for the expensive concentrated feeds now purchased. A 

 comparison of vetch-seed meal with linseed meal did not give wholly 

 satisfactory results. 



The investigation of hop drying, inaugurated last year, has been 

 continued. Drying at low temperatures has again proved very effi- 

 cient as a means of conserving the lupulin. 



Results of ex])eriments in canning fruits and vegetables by a 

 method of intermittent pasteurization devised by the bacteriologist 

 have been published. Tomatoes, green beans, wax beans, caulillowfr, 

 asparagus, cherries, and cider treated in this way were found to 

 keep perfectly and ranked as the highest grade of canned goods. l)iit 

 the method proved less satisfactory for beans, ])eas. and corn. 'J'hi^ 

 bacteriologist has also given further study to the ivfting of flax by 

 pure cultures of organisms. 



Cooperative work of various kinds has increased to a marked 

 extent throughout the State. Alfalfa is being widely tested in this 

 way, the station sending inoculated alfalfa soil last yeai" lo al)out 250 

 farmers. Spraying experiments for ihe iipijjc scab lia\e been car- 

 ried on with local growers and are to be undertaken for the potato 

 scab. The canning of pineapples and the utilization of the waste 



