164 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



The Virginia Station has some important work under way and the 

 opportunities afforded with the new buildings and laboratories and 

 additional funds give much encouragement for the future. The feel- 

 ing toward the station in the State is greatly improved, and it has 

 a strong and enthusiastic following, 



WASHINGTON. 



Washington Agricultural Experiment Station, Pullman. 



Department of the State College of Washington. 



E. A. Bryan. M. A., LL. D., Director. 



The work of the Washington Station has not materially changed 

 in its main features, although there have been several changes in 

 personnel and considerable extension in animal husbandry, agronomy, 

 and horticulture. A dairyman has been appointed to conduct a 

 traveling dairy school, to study conditions of dairy production in 

 the State and to introduce better methods. Additional assistants in 

 animal husbandry, horticulture, entomology, and veterinary science 

 have been provided. 



The work in the improvement of cereals has been greatly extended, 

 and in cooperation with the chemist studies are being made of the 

 chemical composition of the wheats of the region and the baking prop- 

 erties and other characteristics of the flours produced from them. 

 Plant breeding experiments with wheat, and field experiments with 

 cereals, as well as with other crops, are being made at the stations at 

 Quincy and at Ritzville, and tests of varieties of corn, clover, grasses, 

 and other forage plants are being carried on. Special attention has 

 been given to a study of rotations and methods of culture to take the 

 place of the fallow system commonly practiced in the Palouse Avheat- 

 growing region. The substitution of a crop of corn or potatoes for 

 bare fallow has been tried with very satisfactory results. 



The plantations of native forest seedlings and ornamentals have 

 been extended, and among other lines of work recently undertaken 

 are propagation of nursery stock, soil mulches and cover crops, time of 

 pruning, tests of varieties and training of raspberries and other 

 small fruits, seedling Logan berries, and tests of varieties and 

 methods of culture of vegetables, especially Avith reference to blight 

 resistance of tomatoes. Attention has also been given to the subjects 

 of clean milk, transmission of tuberculosis, red water in cattle, exter- 

 mination of squirrels by means of a contagious disease, occurrence of 

 tuberculosis in poultry, and fattening beef cattle on the common for- 

 age crops of eastern Washington. 



Investigations with reference to various plant diseases and insects 

 and the means of repression have included, among other subjects, 



