1917.1 PUBLIC DOCmiENT — No. 31. 11a 



Essentials for Needed Development. 

 Some of the more pressing and immediate needs of the station 

 have been mentioned and briefly discussed in recent reports. A 

 considerable number of these have not yet been met or have 

 been met only in part. For this reason, and also because it 

 takes a longer look ahead, it seems desirable to present here in 

 its entirety a statement covering the more essential require- 

 ments as they are now apprehended for what may be regarded 

 as the normal development of the station work for the next five 

 years, which was prepared at the suggestion of the Special Com- 

 mission on Agricultural Education at the Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural College and the Development of the Agricultural Re- 

 sources of the Commonwealth. The inclusion of this statement 

 involves a second reference to two matters referred to in earlier 

 pages, viz., provision for a substation in market gardening and 

 the support of its work, and an annual grant for tobacco in- 

 vestigations. The needs of the experiment station as presented 

 in the statement to the commission follow: — 



1. Land needed. 



Tillson Farm. — Area, nearly 80 acres; cost as agreed in 

 contract, 85,000. 



This farm is now leased and the lease still has six years to 

 run. It is greatly needed for use in connection with a number 

 of important lines of investigation, some of the more important 

 of which are experiments in use of manures and fertilizers, plant 

 breeding, pasture improvement, crop rotation and pork produc- 

 tion. This farm is located about three-quarters of a mile from 

 the station center. On it there are only two buildings, — a very 

 small, cheap cottage occupied by a Polish laborer, and a tobacco 

 shed. It will not be possible, except at very great disadvantage, 

 to carry on such experimental work as is pressing until buildings 

 are provided. Clearly, it will be bad business policy to erect 

 buildings upon property which we are not certain some time to 

 own. The purchase price agreed upon is low, hardly equal to 

 the normal market value of such property in Amherst. To fail 

 to close the option would, accordingly, seem very shortsighted 

 policy; and, since the property cannot be used to advantage 



