1913.1 PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 21 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 



K. F. GASKILL, ASSISTANT. 



The duty of preparing- the annual report of the agricultural 

 department has fallen to the assistant agriculturist. i)r. Wm. 

 P. Brooks, who has served as agriculturist of the experiment 

 station since 1889, was forced to give up his duties last June 

 because of ill health, and by vote of the trustees has been given 

 leave of absence until September, 1913. 



The work of the department for the past year was outlined 

 almost entirely by Dr. Brooks and has followed the same gen- 

 eral lines as in previous years, namely, experiments with fer- 

 tilizers involving the use of 181 field plots, 13 orchard plots, 

 132 pots in our vegetation work and 147 inclosed plots, used 

 largely to check results obtained in the field. 



From year to year the department has made a careful study 

 of man}^ of the more promising varieties of potatoes, corn and 

 soy beans; has investigated the possibilities of growing alfalfa 

 in the State ; and has co-operated with other departments of the 

 station in carrying out many lines of investigation ; but the 

 main question under consideration has been the study of prob- 

 lems connected with soil fertility. Preferring to base con- 

 clusions on averages for a number of years, rather than on the 

 results for one or two years, many of the fertilizer experiments 

 have been continued from year to year. In view of this fact 

 the report of the experimental work in this department, as in 

 previous years, must in most instances be a report of progress. 

 It is intended to present the work according to the plan gen- 

 erally followed, in order that the successive reports may fur- 

 nish a complete record of each experiment. 



