TENNESSEE. 185 



TENNESSEE. 



Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, KnoxviUe. 



Department of the Uuiversitj-^ of Tennessee. 



H. A. Morgan, B. S. A.. Director. 



Steady progress marked tlie course of the Tennessee Station during 

 the year. The resignations and new aj^pointnients did not interfere 

 to any great extent with the organization of the staff or the efficiency 

 of the station in general. J, N. Price resigned as dairj^man, and his 

 work was combined with that of the animal husbandman, F. C. 

 Quereau, and F. H. Denniss was appointed assistant dairyman. 

 V^^. E, Grainger, fertilizer and food chemist, and H. H. Hampton, 

 soil chemist, resigned and AY. K. Hunter and AV. H. Maynard were 

 appointed assistant chemists and S. Levitt, of the Bureau of Chem- 

 istry of this Department, soil chemist. Near the close of the year 

 F. C. Quereau resigned to become assistant director of the rice sub- 

 station at Crowley, La. According to an appropriation bill passed 

 by the legislature, $10,000 is set aside for maintaining the substation 

 at Jackson, $5,000 for crop experiments in middle Tennessee, and 

 $7,500 for the station at Knoxville. 



The AVest Tennessee substation, for which provision was made in 

 1907, was definitely located during the year near Jackson, in Madison 

 County, about 175 acres of land having been donated by the county. 

 Substantial frame buildings have been erected, and experiments have 

 been begun in the feeding of beef animals and in the cultivation of 

 various field, fruit, and garden crops. The station farm contains 

 3 types of soil — bottom land, white clay, and sandy soil. The land 

 is admirably suited for experimental and demonstration work, and 

 some of the fields present the opportunity of studying the problem of 

 economical soil improvement. An orchard has been set out, and it 

 is planned to maintain a dairy herd and to carry on feeding experi- 

 ments with steers. 



Progress was reported in a number of Adams fund projects on 

 which the station is at work. The study of soil biology included a 

 study of the soy-bean bacterium, with special reference to discovering 

 the reason why wheat after soy beans is not productive, and an in- 

 vestigation of methods of studying the germination and growth of 

 seeds in soil with bacterial control. The anthracnose project was 

 continued, and a new resistant strain of alfalfa secured in connection 

 with this work is now to be tested in a practical way in different 

 localities. In the humus project different types of soil are being used 

 in experiments conducted in a series of about 100 cylinders 4 feet deep, 

 and sets of cans from 1 to feet deep. Pot experiments are also being 

 arranged to determine the rate of decay and formation of humus. 



