Owing to the failure of Congress to appropriate the sums 

 of money called for in the Act approved March 2, 1887, it 

 was April of the following year before the station could 

 engage in any original work, and but three months then re- 

 mained before the close of the fiscal year. The work, there- 

 fore, has been largely that of preparation and equipment. 

 In the horticultural department a new greenhouse has been 

 erected, in which, side by side, the comparative merits of 

 hot water and steam for heating purposes are to be tested. 

 The walls have been built in sections, to test the value of 

 different materials and different methods of construction. 

 Investigations of the adaptability of new varieties of fruit to 

 this latitude continue to be carried on, as also the effects of 

 different kinds of fertilizers. In the entomological depart- 

 ment breeding-cages have been constructed, and the life his- 

 tories of noxious and beneficial insects carefully studied. 

 The economic value of these investigations cannot be too 

 highly appreciated. Damage to the amount of sixty millions 

 of dollars, it is estimated, is annually done to our crops by 

 insects ; and the only eflectual way in which sure results can 

 be reached for combating their inroads, is by studying them 

 through all their transformations up to the perfect insect. 

 For this purpose a small greenhouse is imperatively de- 

 manded, at an outlay of say fifteen hundred dollars, in which 

 the plants can be grown on which their enemies feed, and 

 the life history of the insect studied, at the same time that 

 trial is made of different remedies for destroying it. The 

 funds of the Station will not admit of the erection of such 

 building, and the field of work must be in consequence 

 greatly restricted. Experiment has been made of different 

 insecticides, and the most economical and best methods of 

 application. In the meteorological department a full set of 

 self-recording instruments has been purchased and placed in 

 position, and an accurate record of all meteorological phe- 

 nomena will be kept. The amount of rainfall and snow, 

 the pressure and temperature of the atmosphere, the 

 quantity and intensity of sunlight, and the direction, force 

 and velocity of the wind, Tvill be carefully observed. Dur- 

 ing the year three bulletins have been issued, and sent free 

 to any person interested or engaged in farming pursuits. 



