554 EXPERIMENT STATION RECOED. 



with a competent aud numerous corpse of assistants, whose business it 

 shall be to visit every farm from which milk is sold, keep a constant 

 supervision over the health of the cattle, the manner of their feeding, 

 and the handling of the milk until it reaches the consumer, and with 

 adequate penalties for infractions of the law. 



The next paper was read by J. L. Hills, of Vermont, on "What is the 

 most profitable way to dispose of skim milk!" He discussed the food 

 value of skim milk and reviewed at some length feeding tests which had 

 been made with skim milk, making a plea for its more extended use as 

 a food. Skim milk is used for three purposes — as a fertilizer, in the 

 arts, and as a food. Its use as a fertilizer was not considered of great 

 importance. It has a fertilizing value of about 10 cents per hundred 

 pounds. The speaker believed that laws which prevented the sale of 

 skim milk should be so modified as to permit the sale of any milk that 

 had its composition guaranteed, and that very stringent regulations 

 should be made regarding the purity of the supply of milk of all sorts. 

 Skim milk is sometimes evaporated and used in the manufacture of 

 feeding cakes, and the sj^eaker believed that this use could be much 

 extended. 



The discussion of the question ''Can station farms be conducted so 

 as to not unfit them for experimental i)urposes?" was opened by R. II. 

 Miller, of Maryland, in a brief paper, and was participated in by R. J. 

 Redding and H. J. Wheeler. 



The question "How nearly can physical conditions of soil be con- 

 trolled and methods for the same"?" was discussed by M. Whitney, of 

 this Department, who described electrical apparatus of his own inven- 

 tion for determining, by means of electrical resistance of the soil, the 

 amount of moisture in the soil, the temperature at different depths, and 

 the quantity of soluble salts it contains. The apparatus is also adapted 

 to the determination of the progress of leaching in the soil and of the 

 depth to which rainfall penetrates. He stated that several of these 

 instruments are in successful use by farmers. 



I. P. Roberts, of New York, described a new dynamometer for use in 

 determining the draft of agricultural machinery. 



W. H. Jordan, of Xew York, briefly discussed "Reforms which should 

 be inaugurated in the methods of making feeding experiments." He 

 classed feeding experiments under two heads — those which are under- 

 taken for the purpose of discovering the fundamental principles of ani- 

 mal nutrition, and those which may more properly be styled tests of 

 theory or exiieriments as object lessons. The first class is of the greater 

 importance, but a large proportion of the experiments which the sta- 

 tions have heretofore made belongs to the second class. In the speaker's 

 opinion, reform in feeding experiments should come along the line 

 of a closer study of the materials fed aud the product obtained and the 

 lengthening of the feeding i^eriods until we are sure that we have 

 established and maintained certain effects from certain rations. The 

 discussion of this subject was participated in by I. P. Roberts, W. A. 



