No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 225 



There seems to be no special criticism to apply to the 

 horses, sheep, swine amd poultry of the farm. There is as yet 

 considerable conflict of opinion as to the cattle, but, as fair 

 discussion is the education of the people, this is well. Among 

 the more than one hundred cows and heifers there appear 

 to be some excellent milking stock, some well calculated for 

 beef, some not easily defined as belonging to either class, and 

 others still giving good evidence of the all-purpose cow. In 

 these days of keen competition, are these the cattle to hold 

 up to Massachusetts dairymen as models to breed toward ? 

 There are several good specimen bulls in the barns, but not 

 a steer or working ox on the premises, the raising and driv- 

 ing of which is fast becoming a lost art, not only here but also 

 on nine-tenths of the farms of New England. Our people are 

 quite as particular concerning their beef supply as their milk 

 supply, and, with the stock of cattle falling off* one-third in 

 two years, a beef famine in the Old World, and our mountain 

 pastures not one-third stocked and many of them not stocked 

 at all, we are led to ask, Whither are we tending? Would it 

 not be profitable to Massachusetts agriculture if the energies 

 and acres of the college farm were devoted to showing our 

 farmers typical herds for milk, butter and beef? 



The Hatch Experiment Station. 



New buildings, trucks, railway, etc., for carrying on the 

 pot experiments have been added this season. Many of 

 these same experiments are carried on upon a larger scale in 

 the field, and the results of both tests carefully compared. 

 By these tests information relative to providing well-balanced 

 food rations for our plants is gained. 



In the horticultural department tests of seeds and fruits 

 are carried on, diflerent fertilizing material tried and various 

 forms of spraying practised. 



The entomological department is constantly experimenting 

 to find economic methods of destroying the various forms of 

 insect life destructive to the crops of the farm and garden. 

 In this connection it may not be out of place to state that 

 arrangements have been made to allow those in charge to go 

 about the Commonwealth, to better study the habits and 

 depredations of insects in their homes. 



