AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 11 
state, and the total increased annual product already ap- 
proaches a million dollars in value. Numerous former stu- 
dents of this department and other farmers are beginning to 
cooperate in the breeding of corn.. The investments intelli- 
gently made in breeding certainly pay to the state a very large 
dividend, and lands and other equipment needed to enlarge 
this work should be supplied. The U.S. Department of Agri- 
culture is encouraging the state to enlarge its breeding opera- 
tions by meeting any increase on the station’s part with fur- 
ther assistance from the appropriations made by the national 
congress. 
The cooperative statistical invesigations begun in 1902 by 
this division and the Bureau of Statistics of the United States 
Department of Agriculture in Rice, Lyon and Norman counties 
have progressed most satisfactorily. From simply collecting 
data on the cost of growing field crops, the work has developed 
and now includes collecting all available facts concerning the 
production, marketing and sale of products, the expenses of 
the family, and the general profits of the entire farm enter- 
prise. To enable the route men to broaden the scope of the 
data secured, the number of farms on each route has been 
reduced from fifteen to eight. The United States Department 
of Agriculture shows its appreciation of this work by paying 
its share of the expenses, including a small fee to each farmer 
and to each farmer’s wife for their assistance in weighing food 
stuffs, produce used in the household, etc. These investiga- 
tions are a part of a general attempt begun by this institution 
ten years ago, to develop the facts necessary to use in effec- 
tively teaching farm management in schools for farmers. 
The first ten years of the experiments dealing with the rota- 
tion of crops has now been about completed and the results are 
being compiled for publication. 
Experiments at Coteau Farm, in Lyon County, | South- 
western Minnesota, during the ten years, 1894 to 1903 inclu- 
sive, developed the fact that experiments are needed to work 
out systems of crop rotation and farm management suited to 
the drier areas of our country. In dry years in Minnesota, 
securing the entrance of water into the soil and its conserva- 
tion for use by crops, are of far greater importance than the 
