PENNSYLVANIA. . 173 



PENNSYLVANIA, 



The Pennsylvania State College Agricultural Experiment Station, State 



CoUcgc. 



T. F. Hunt, D. Agr., D. Sc, Director. 



The principal changes on the staff of the Pennsylvania Experi- 

 ment Station resulted from the resignation of J. W. Gilmore, agron- 

 omist, and the appointment of F. D. Gardner to the same position; 

 several changes were made in the force of assistants during the 3'ear. 

 Since the close of the fiscal year, C. L. Penny has resigned to return 

 to the Delaware Station. The state appropriations for the current 

 biennium for the college and station aggregate $525,999,76. Among 

 the items of expenditure authorized are $17G,08G for the school of 

 agriculture and the station, $169,050 for the school of engineering, 

 $9,368 for the maintenance of the department of home economics, 

 and $4,000 for the institute of animal nutrition. 



Under the Adams Act, work on the three projects previously laid 

 down was systematically pursued. The horticulturist continued his 

 investigations on the causes affecting the yield and quantity of 

 apples. In this connection a new orchard was planted on the farm 

 recently acquired, and experiments were also in progress on private 

 farms in about 10 different localities in the State. Some results of 

 this study were recently published in a bulletin," 



In the agronomy investigations, samples of the soils of the rota- 

 tion plats were taken weekly for making culture experiments, and 

 complete analyses of the soils were also made and distillates from the 

 various soils were collected and used for watering culture pots. 

 The distillate from soil on which a heavy crop of wheat had been 

 grown did not have as high an effect as one from a plat producing a 

 low yield of wheat. The degree of evenness in fertility of the 

 experimental area was determined, and results indicated that phos- 

 phoric acid is apparently correlated with the 3aelds. 



The other line of work under this fund is conducted by the Insti- 

 tute of Animal Nutrition, described on page 175, Under the Hatch Act, 

 field experiments were conducted on liming old land on which corn, 

 oats, wheat, and a mixture of timothy and clover are grown in rota- 

 tion. Tests were also made of liming soil preparatory to seeding 

 alfalfa, and the effects of different amounts of lime were studied. 

 The results of rotation experiments in progress for 28 years w^ere 

 studied and .soil temperatures taken on many of the plats. The 

 lower extremes of temperature were met with on the plats giving 

 good yields. Cultural ex|)eriments with alfalfa mainly to deter- 

 mine the method of getting a stand and maintaining it were also 

 conducted. 



<» Peuusylvaniii Sta. Bui. 91. 



