1918.1 PUBLIC DOCmiEXT — No. 31. 21a 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



E. F. GASKILL. 



The work of the agricultural department has been continued 

 during the past year along the same general lines followed in 

 previous years. A large share of the experimental work of this 

 department has to do with the study of different phases of the 

 question of soil fertility. This necessitates the care and man- 

 agement of a large number of field plots. This year the work 

 has involved the use of 230 field plots, 13 orchard plots, 23 

 pasture plots, 143 closed plots and 432 pots in our vegetation 

 experiments. 



No experimental work has been started on the newly acquired 

 Tillson farm, as the buildings there are not suitable for storage. 

 The crops grown on this farm this year were "war emergency 

 crops" and hay. Four varieties of winter wheat were sown this 

 fall to determine whether any of these varieties are suitable for 

 this section. 



The supervision of the field work on the Tuxbury land, on 

 which are set about 1,100 trees to be used for experimental work, 

 also comes under this department. 



The work of the agricultural department as set forth from 

 year to year in the annual reports may be considered a report 

 of progress. No attempt is made to report in full all the ac- 

 tivities of the department, but to mention only a few of the 

 more important lines of investigation. The same policy will be 

 followed this year. 



Field A, or the Nitrogen Experiment. 



The experiment has been continued for twenty-eight years, 



and has had for its object the determination of the relative 



value as sources of nitrogen of barnyard manure, nitrate of soda, 



sulfate of ammonia and dried blood; also the effect on the no- 



