330 ANNUAL REPORT 



merits may be tested thoroughly, so that the effects of climate, 

 soil, etc., may be observed in all these different localities. In 

 order to be of value this work needs to be continuous, and in 

 order that the information may be of greatest advantage there 

 needs to be a report presented from year to year as to actual ex- 

 perience and observation during the year. Then, when these 

 are collected, a person by looking back at the rej)orts, extending 

 over a series of years, will be enabled to form an estimate as to 

 the progress made. 



I would state that I have not prepared a written report to 

 present at this meeting, but I have made a report to the board of 

 regents which is now in press and of which I have here proof 

 sheets of such portions as relate to this experimental work. I 

 shall not take up your time by reading this report at length but 

 wish only to glance briefly at the different lines of work. Copies 

 of the work, which will contain over five hundred pages, will be 

 mailed to members of the Society. 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION. 



An agricultural experiment station is an institution provided with 

 a suitable equipment of lands, houses, stables, plant houses, ap- 

 paratus for testing seeds, laboratories for chemical investiga- 

 tions, farm stock, implements and machinery, and provided with 

 a working force of intelligent, enthusiastic, scientific and practi- 

 cal men, well trained in the several departments of agriculture, 

 horticulture, stock and dairy management, forestry, chemistry, 

 botany, entomology, and veterinary science. 



The object of such an institution should be to conduct origi- 

 nal researches or verify experiments on the physiology of plants 

 and animals, the diseases to which they are subject, with the 

 remedies for the same; the chemical composition of useful plants 

 at their different stages of growth; the comparative advantages 

 of different systems of rotation of crops; the adaptation of trees, 

 plants and shrubs to the conditions of soil and climate of the lo 

 cality of the station; the analyses of soils and water; the influ- 

 ence of drainage and irrigation; the chemical composition of 

 manures, natural and artificial, and their adaptation to difi'erent 

 crops. 



RUSSIAN APPLES. 



Undoubtedly the greatest horticultural need of Minnesota is a 

 good list of hardy apple trees. Experiments with a view to fill- 



