148 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



college, to include the respiration calorimeter and allied nutrition 

 investigations hitherto carried on by the station, with which it will 

 be affiliated, although coordinate in rank. H. P. Armsby, who 

 has been director of the station since 1888, will be in charge of the 

 institute, and T. F. Hunt, of Cornell University and Station will 

 succeed to the directorship of the station and will also act as dean of 

 the college of agriculture. 



During the year the respiration calorimeter and the methods fol- 

 lowed in experiments with it have been perfected and simplified in 

 many details. Investigations bearing on the general question of the 

 nutritive value of foods as affected b}^ age and individuality have 

 been undertaken, and results of a series of experiments made in 

 cooperation with the Bureau of Animal Industry to determine the 

 relative value of certain feeding stuffs for maintenance and fattening 

 have been j)ublished. Other lines of work in animal husbandry 

 to^ be completed are comparisons of distillers' grains versus cotton- 

 seed meal as a source of protein for cows, indoor versus outdoor feed- 

 ing for fattening steers, experiments to determine a practical succes- 

 sion of soiling crops for milch cows, and the feeding value of alfalfa 

 meal versus wheat bran. The poultry plant has been improved and 

 enlarged and experiments have been begun to determine the cost of 

 meat production in the Asiatic, Mediterranean, and American breeds. 



In response to an offer of the station to supply the necessar}^ fer- 

 tilizers and directions for cooperative soil tests in the various coun- 

 ties, more than 250 requests Avere received from which apjjlicants 

 in each of 38 counties were selected. Attempts to grow alfalfa on 

 the limestone soils of the State have given results which are con- 

 sidered very encouraging. 



A State appropriation has been used to extend the observations 

 and experiments in I^ancaster County on the growing and curing of 

 Sumatra tobacco under shelter. While the results of the three years' 

 work are not regarded as conclusive, this type seems well adapted to 

 the lighter soils of the region. A beginning has been made in a 

 study of the influence of seed selection on the type and form of 

 Sumatra leaf and of the prevention of l)urn by tlie use of artificial 

 heat and ventilation during the critical periods of curing. 



Th(> inspection duties and routine analytical work continue to be 

 very heavy and consume a large share of the time of the chemical 

 division. Analyses of feeding stuffs are now made by the State 

 dei)artment of agi'iculture, but the station has recently luidertaken 

 for the millers of the State analvses of ijoods for which a State law 

 requires a guaranty of comi)osition. The general correspondence of 

 (he sliitioii has shown a decich'd increase, and the corri'spondence 

 course's conducted by the college now have (?nrolled about 4,000 names. 



