WASHINGTON. 199 



during the year. The last legislature made liberal appropriations to 

 the college for building purposes and a number of new buildings are 

 being erected. This legislature also appropriated $29,000 for the 

 maintenance of the Puyallup substation for the current biennium. 



Substantial progress was made in several of the Adams fund 

 projects. The investigations on improvement of cereals and soil 

 moisture were extended in scope during the 3'ear w ith state aid, and 

 a progress report on the first is ready for publication. Investigations 

 on extermination of spermophiles were practically completed and a 

 report is being prepared. Studies of blackberry and raspberry 

 hybrids were prosecuted with good results. Some work was also done 

 on a number of other projects, including nutrition and prolificacy of 

 swine, tomato blight, soil toxicity, starch production by potatoes, 

 hemaglobinemia in cattle, and effect of parasitism on the host insect. 

 A new project — the function of sulphur as a plant food — has been 

 taken up, and the study of bacterial diseases of the blackberry and 

 raspberry has been transferred to state funds. The hybrid wheats 

 "which have been developed at the station have been given large field 

 trials and have proved remarkably' successful, farmers' reports show- 

 ing an average of 15 per cent increase in yield over other varieties. 

 An important relation of soluble and insoluble phosphates of the 

 wheat kernel to the baking strength of the flour and physical quality 

 of the grain from it has been discovered and is being further studied. 



Adams fund projects received additional support during the year 

 as follows : The cereal work was supplemented b};^ a state appropria- 

 tion of $2,000, which was expended largely in the purchase of im- 

 proved machinery for planting and threshing the grain, and an 

 assistant cercalist was added to give his entire time to these investi- 

 gations. For the soil moisture work special equipment was installed 

 at the irrigation station at Sunnyside, and measurements of absorp- 

 tion and evaporation of soil moisture were inaugurated and an 

 assistant soil physicist was appointed during the last part of the 

 year; special chemicals and equipment for the soil toxicity work were 

 added ; and the swine breeding work was aided by the purchase of 

 two litters of young sows of uniform breeding which are to serve as 

 a basis of future study. 



Among the more important lines of investigation aside from the 

 Adams fund projects enumerated above, were the following: Crop 

 rotations and methods of culture to replace summer fallow, variety 

 tests and improvement by selection of corn, tests of Canada field peas, 

 methods of applying numure, variety tests and improvement of 

 forage crops, a succession of forage crops for pigs, soy beans and 

 cowpeas for summer pasture, lime-sulphur wash as a fungicide and 

 insecticide, bitter rot of apples, grain smut, plant disease survey of 

 the State, winter injury to fruits, tests of varieties of grapes, summer 



