196 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



Virginia, and cxporinients with grasses, forage, fertilizer, and crop 

 rotations were made by the department of agronomy. The dairy 

 department studied the production of sanitary milk and the efficiency 

 of farm sejDarators, while the department of animal husbandry gave 

 special attention to feeding tests in order to determine the most eco- 

 nomical use of silage in feeding steers and the comparative value of 

 various substitutes for milk in feeding calves. 



The station cooperates freely with other agencies conducting agri- 

 cultural work in the State. Three projects are carried on in coopera- 

 tion with the United States Department of Agriculture, two with 

 the Virginia Truck Experiment Station, and plans are being made 

 to cooperate with the state department of agriculture. During the 

 year all station field work and equipment was segregated from that 

 of the college, which is resulting in a more effective and more eco- 

 nomical management for both. 



The six local experiment stations established by the State are under 

 the joint control of the station and the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 of this Department. These stations, located in the several tobacco 

 districts of the State, were originally established solely for experi- 

 ments with tobacco, but their scope has now been extended to include 

 crops grown in rotation with tobacco. E. H. Mathewson, of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, is in immediate charge at these local 

 stations, which are maintained by an appropriation of $5,000 each 

 from the State and from the Bureau of Plant Industry. Efforts are 

 being made to arrange cooperative experiments with farmers and 

 to encourage the establishment of more local stations by the State. 

 Most of the members of the station staff have assisted at from 4 to 

 15 farmers' institutes during the year, and in addition the college 

 and the station jointly conducted two institute trains. 



The plan has been adopted of making the bulletins short and non- 

 technical, and of reserving the details and technical matter for the 

 annual report. 



The following publications were received during the year: Bulle- 

 tins 174, The cultivation of potatoes; 175, Cooperative tobacco in- 

 vestigations; 17G, Hog feeding; 177, Inheritance in tomato hybrids; 

 178, Causes of the heavy loss of lambs in 1908; 179, Homemade 

 soluble oils for use against the San Jose scale; 180, The blue gi-ass 

 of southwest Virginia; and 181. AVormy apples and how to prevent 

 them — Results of spraying for codling moth in 1908; Circulars 1, 

 Sugar beets in Virginia; 2, How the experiment station can be of 

 service to the farmers of Virginia; 3, Dates of seeding winter grains; 

 4, Selecting seed corn; 5, Sugar beets in 1908; G, Improving the corn 

 crop; and 7, Fighting insect pests and diseases of orchard, field, and 

 garden crops; and the Annual Report for 1908. 



