152 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



In addition to their inspection and special Avork, the stations are 

 exertinj^ a stroncr influence in the State, whicii is reflected in im- 

 proved methods of farm practice and larger returns. 



NEW MEXICO. 



Agricultural Experiment Station of New Mexico, AgrictiUural College. 



Department of New Mexico College of Agricultiuv and Mechanic Arts. 



Luther Foster, M. S. A., Director. 



Numerous chancres on the staff of the apicultural experiment sta- 

 tion occurred during the year and at its close. L. A. Pringle, assist- 

 ant in chemistry, was succeeded by A. P. Bjerregaard, and E. 

 Heringa, assistant in the soil physics department, was succeeded by 

 W. L. Powers. J. B. Stoneking w^as employed as an assistant in the 

 irrigation department. At the close of the year, P. C. Standley, 

 assistant in botany, accepted a position with the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, and was succeeded by E. I. Werber. W. G. Hummel resigned 

 his position as assistant in agronomy and his place was filled by the 

 appointment of J. H. Squires. Since the close of the fiscal year, 

 B. P. Fleming, in charge of the irrigation work, has accepted a 

 position in the ITniversity of Iowa and has been succeeded by F. L. 

 Bixbv, of this Office. 



Wilson Hall, the new agricultural building, was completed and 

 ready for occupancy about the middle of the year. This building 

 furnishes offices and laboratories for the departments of agronomy, 

 animal husbandry, horticulture, and irrigation engineering, in addi- 

 tion to an office for the director and room for the station library. 

 Other minor buildings were constructed in different departments for 

 the protection of machinery and for storage purposes. The legis- 

 lature gave no direct assistance to the station at its last session, and 

 failed to make the usual appropriation for farmers' institutes. 



The Adams fund projects under way Avere carried forward during 

 the year and in some of them material progress w^as made. In the 

 cactus studies, additional data were obtained this season from the 

 older bearing plants in regard to the quantity of fruit which w^ill 

 probably be produced by these plants when they reach bearing size. 

 The results have also pointed out the necessity of spines as a protec- 

 tion against rabbit depredations and the sensitiveness of the plants 

 to change of soil and altitude and to the diminution of the w'ater 

 supply. Culture tests with spineless cacti are in progress and prep- 

 arations for breeding work are being made. A bulletin reporting the 

 results of experiments on the digestibility of prickly pear by cattle 

 was issued during the vear. The results thus far secured in the 

 rubber-plant investigations with the guayule have all been negative. 



