16 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



greater part of this instruction work occurs during the winter 

 season the importance of adequate shelter is apparent. 



We, therefore, recommend that an appropriation of twenty 

 thousand dollars ($20,000) be made by the General Assembly to 

 provide for a proper building for the accommodation of the work 

 mentioned. We further recommend that a special appropriation 

 of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) be made for the erection and 

 equipment of suitable experiment barn and sheds for the investi- 

 gation of contagious diseases and partiv^ularly for carrying on the 

 vvork in hog cholera. And an appropriation of five thousand dol- 

 lars ($5,000) annually for the purchase of experimental animals — 

 hogs, horses and cattle — for use in the hog cholera investigations, 

 and to cover the expense of producing and dissemination of hog 

 cholera serum. 



The Soil Survey. — We are pleased to learn that the soil survey 

 work has progressed so far as to include a careful preliminary 

 study of the whole Ozark region. The northeastern prairie re- 

 gion of the State is partly surveyed, as is also the western prairie 

 section. A detailed survey of four counties has been completed. 

 The report on the Ozark region is in the hands of the printer, and 

 will be published in the very near future. Too much emphasis 

 cannot be laid upon the importance of this work. At the very 

 foundation of a rational system of crop growth and soil manage- 

 ment must be an accurate and detailed knowledge of the soil itself. 

 This survey takes account of stock, and tells each farm owner 

 what is the future as well as the present value of his farm. The 

 survey should be pushed as rapidly as trained men can be found 

 to carry it out, and continued until each county has been carefully 

 surveyed and reported upon. 



The Board of Curators should not ask for less than $20,000 

 for the support of this work during the next two years. 



Outlying Experiments. — The work of the Department of 

 Agronomy in testing the fertilizer requirements of soils in dif- 

 ferent parts of the State, in studying, the effect of different crop 

 rotations, different varieties of corn, wheat, oats and forage crops 

 upon different sections and soils, in studying the feasibility and 

 profitableness of tile draining on some -of the flatter prairie soils 

 of the State, cannot be too highly commended. This work should 

 be continued, and should be materially enlarged. We find experi- 

 ments already under way in more than 90 of the 114 counties of 

 the State. It should be immediately extended so as to include 

 every county in the State, and the scope of many of the experi- 



