1914.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 37 a 



In this field two different seed mixtures, referred to in pre- 

 vious reports respectively as the " fescue mixture " and the 

 " timothy mixture," are under comparison. The " fescue mix- 

 ture," as has been true for the past few years, gave a consider- 

 ably larger crop than the " timothy mixture." 



The chemical department during the past year has published 

 one bulletin, " The Record of the Station Herd and the Cost 

 of Milk Production." This shows that the larger cows produce 

 milk at lower cost than the smaller, and the conclusion drawn 

 from the records (which are exact as regards food consumed 

 and milk yield, but necessarily estimated as regards labor and 

 some other items) is that milk of satisfactory quality can prob- 

 ably not be produced and sold at the farm at a profit at less 

 than from 5 to 5^/2 cents per quart. 



The chemical department has published a bulletin, " The 

 Digestibility of Cattle Foods," found later in this report. In 

 this will be found the results obtained in a large number of 

 digestion experiments. 



The chemical department has continued the study of the 

 effects of food on the composition of milk. In this connection 

 it has been found necessary, for accurate determination of the 

 chemical composition of butter fats, to discover and perfect 

 new methods and apparatus. A bulletin, " The Determination 

 of the Acetyl Number," found later in this report, describes 

 one of the improved methods. Some new forms of apparatus 

 and other methods now under trial are highly promising and 

 will be described in later papers. 



The study of the composition of asparagus shoots and tops 

 at successive stages of growth has been continued in connection 

 with our study of the nutrition of this plant. Up to the present 

 time no clear relation between fertilizer treatment and compo- 

 sition has been proved. 



Cranberry nutrition studies have been continued, the com- 

 position of the waters of the small artificial bogs established at 

 the station receiving particular attention. A paper on this 

 subject will be found in a bulletin in later pages, " Reports on 

 Experimental Work in Connection with Cranberries." 



In the continued study of the effects of sulfate of ammonia 

 on the soil it has been found that its use as a fertilizer seems 



