22 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



Reprints of Circulars — 



No. 40 — The Seeding of Alfalfa. 

 No. 42 — The .Seeding of Clover and Grasses. 

 No. 47 — Rai.sing Calves on Skim Milk. 

 No. 48 — The Pla.stered or Gurler Silo. 



Saving ATissouri Hugs. — The College of Agriculture inoculaled 70,000 hogs during the 

 past year. Eighty-flvo per cent of these hogs were saved. At a conservative estimate, the 

 work of the college has added .SI, 000, 000 in cash to the resources of Missouri in this item 

 alone in one year. 



Protecting Farmers in the Use of Fertilizers. — The Agricultural Kxi)eriment Station main- 

 tains a thorough inspection service of commercial fertilizers in order to protect the farmers of 

 Missouri in the use of these materials. All fertilizers must be registered with the E.xpcriment 

 Station, giving a complete and careful guarantee of the amount of plant food present in the 

 fertilizer. The Experiment Station through its inspectors collects these brands of fertilizers 

 from dealers, from the farmers' wagons or in the manufacturers' warehouses. These sam- 

 ples are analyzed and the results published. In this work the Experiment Station has 

 collected 900 samples in 130 localities, and has made 1,600 analyses. 



Seed Testing Laboratory. — The College of Agriculture in co-operation with the United 

 States Department of Agriculture maintains a free seed testing laboratory. Any farmer 

 or seedsman in the State of ISIissouri may send samples of seed to the College and have 

 them tested free of charge. Many farm seeds are adulterated with noxious weed seeds. 

 In some cases 30 per cent of the samples tested have been found to be weed seeds. A prompt 

 report to the farmer or seedsman on these samples prevents the dissemination of serious 

 weed pests. There is no Missouri law now covering the examination of seeds and providing 

 for the enforcement of regulations which will prevent the dissemination of noxious weed 

 seeds. We therefore recommend that a law be enacted giving the Experiment Station the 

 necessary authority to enforce such regulations as will prevent the wholesale distribution 

 of dangerous weed seeds in Missouri. 



Judging Live Stock at County Fairs. — The Agricultural College supplied 42 county 

 fairs with expert judges of live stock in 1911. These expert judges were trained for this 

 work by the animal husbandry department. It required 183 days and the services of 14 

 men to stipply this demand for judges. The total number of animals examined and placed 

 for the award of prizes was 6,000. There were 605,000 people attending these fairs. 



Judging Corn at 61 Missouri Fairs. — Men from the department of agronomy in 1910-11 

 attended 61 agricultural fairs and corn shows for the purpose of giving instruction in breed- 

 ing, selecting and liarvesting seed corn, and acting as expert judges at these shows. The 

 accomplishment of this task required the services of Ave men from the College of Agriculture 

 for a total of 68 days. 



Branch Short Courses in Agriculture. — A new project recently inaugurated by the Col- 

 lege of Agriculture is the establishment of five-day short courses, located in various sections 

 of the State. These branch short courses are planned to give the largest amount of practical 

 instruction in live stock farming, soils, farm crops, dairy farming, fruit growing and poultry 

 farming during a period of one week. This instruction is given under the direction of two 

 competent teachers from the College of Agriculture who devote their entire time to lectures 

 and demonstrations. In 1912, 100 applications were received for the location of branch 

 short courses. Only nine could be organized. There were 648 regularly enrolled students 

 who took the five days work in these courses. 



Instruction for Farmers. — The College of Agriculture does not confine the benefits of 

 its instruction to tliose sttuients only who are permitted to enroll in the regular courses at 

 Columbia. In many ways the college is carrying the results of its practical experiments 

 directly to the people of the State. 



The Farmers' Short Course. — The College of Agriculture offers five distinct short courses 

 in soils and farm crops, horticulture, live stock farming, poultry husbandry, aiul dairy hus- 

 bandry during Farmer's Week at Columbia. In 1913, 1,300 farmers enrolled for systematic 

 instruction in these courses. Nine states were represented in this enrollement. In the 

 winter of 1913, the short courses will begin January 13, and continue for five days, closing 

 with the farmers' banquet on Friday night, January 17, 1913. 



Teaching Agriculture to Teachers. — Each summer, from June to August, in the summer 

 session, instructors in the College of .\griculture give special courses to teachers with a view 

 to preparing them to teach agriculture in the rural and high schools of Missouri. More 

 than 1.50 teachers were enrolled in the agricultural courses in 1912. 



Farmers' Institute. — In co-operation with the State Board of Agriculture, men from 

 the College of Agriculture have delivered 396 addresses at farmers' institutes and other 

 public meetings. 



Farm Advisers for Missouri Counties. — One of the most important projects inaugurated 

 by the College of Agriculture is the appointment of farm advisers for Missouri counties. 

 The College of Agriculture in co-operation witii the United States Department of Agriculture 

 has provided for the appointment of a farm adviser in each county who shall act as the 

 representative of the College of Agriculture. The duties of the farm adviser will be to bring 



