696 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



Porto Rico Sugar ■ Growers Station. — A series of meetings known as 

 " planters' conferences " is being held every one or two months, at convenient 

 points on the island. Addresses are made by the members of the station staff, 

 with an opportunity for discussion by the planters. It is hoped in this way to 

 bring the work of the station directly to the planters and to obtain from them 

 their Yiewi)oint. experience, and suggestions. The first conference was held at 

 Ponce, ]\rarch 1.3, with the subject insects and diseases of sugar cane. 



Clemson College and Station. — Recent appointments include M. S. Gardiner 

 as assistant professor of agronomy and farm mechanics, T. F. Jackson as ex- 

 tension assistant in animal husbandry, T. W. Tate as herdsman, H. C. Eager- 

 ton as extension assistant in entomology, and W. F. Burleigh as assistant state 

 veterinarian. 



South Dakota College and Station. — An appropriation has been made by the 

 legislature of $100,000 for the erection of a building to be known as the agri- 

 cultural and administration building. This is the largest appropriation ever 

 made for a single building at any of the seven state educational institutions. 

 Plans for the new structure are being perfected. It is expected to provide 

 ample room for several members of the station staff, as well as for a general 

 student assembly room. 



Washington Station. — W. J. Young of the microchemical laboratory of this 

 Department has been appointed assistant horticulturist and has entered upon 

 his duties. 



West Virginia University and Station. — Samuel B. Nuckols has been ap- 

 pointed instructor in agronomy and assistant agronomist, and E. W. Sheets 

 assistant in extension work in charge of boys' and girls' agricultural clubs in 

 cooperation with this Department. 



Wyoming ITniversity. — Dr. Charles O. Merica has tendered his resignation 

 as president, to take effect July 1. 



Fifth Graduate School of Agriculture. — The prospectus of the fifth Graduate 

 School of Agriculture has recently been issued. This session will be held at 

 the Michigan Agricultural College, July 1-26. 



The usual public exercises in connection with the opening of the school will 

 be held July 3. when addresses will be given by President J. L. Snyder and 

 Dean R. S. Shaw, of the Michigan College, President W. E. Stone and Dr. H. P. 

 Armsby, representing the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and 

 Experiment Stations, and Dr. A. C. True, of this Ofiice, who will again serve 

 as dean of the school. 



The instruction offered will be given in seven main lines — soils and plant 

 physiology, animal physiology, agronomy, horticulture, animal husbandry and 

 poultry, rural engineering, and rural economics and farm management. The 

 course in soils and plant physiology will include such matters as the part played 

 by the soil solution in the nutrition of plants, the relation of the physiology of 

 plants to the soil pi'oblem, colloids in relation to soil fertility, and soil bactei'i- 

 ology. In the course in animal physiology will be considered such topics as 

 the physiology of the cell, the physiology of reproduction, the biology of sex, 

 and various phases of nutrition investigations. The courses in agronomy and 

 in horticulture will embrace lectures on plant breeding and physiological faC' 

 tors in the breeding and adaptation of plants, problems in field crop produc- 

 tion, and the transportation, handling, and storage of fruit. In animal hus- 

 bandry there will be one series of lectures on beef and dairy cattle running 

 throughout the four weeks and another series divided equally in point of time 

 between swine husbandry and poultry husbandry. Under rural engineering 

 special attention will be given to rural sanitation, machinery, road making, 

 drainage, and irrigation. 



