22 a EXPERIMENT STATIOxN. [Jan. 



connection with our study of feeding problems. Indeed, in almost every 

 investigation progress establishes new facts which have a direct bearing 

 upon practice, but at the same time discloses new vistas of needed inquiry. 

 Frequent change in general lines of investigation not only is unnecessary, 

 it would be highly undesirable. The general experimental work now 

 embraces investigations in the following principal lines of inquiry: soil 

 tests with fertilizers with different crops in rotation; comparison of the 

 different materials available as sources, respectively, of nitrogen, phos- 

 phoric acid, potash and lime for both field and garden crops, with a view 

 to determining the ultimate effects of each on the composition of the soil, 

 the micro-organisms it contains and its physical characteristics; com- 

 parisons of different systems of fertilizing mowings and orchards; trial 

 of different manures and fertilizers for both tree and bush fruits; com- 

 parison of methods of applying manures and fertilizers; variety tests of 

 garden and field crops and fruits; tests of different spray materials and 

 methods of spraying; comparisons of methods of pruning and of cover 

 crops in orchard management; tests of nursery stock from different 

 sources and of different ages; trials of new crops; determinations of the 

 digestibility of feedstuffs; methods of feeding for milk; systems of feeding 

 and management of poultry for eggs; efforts to determine the value and 

 best methods of use of anti-hog-cholera serum ; studies upon the diagnosis 

 and transmission of avian tuberculosis ; co-operation with selected farmers 

 in the trial of crops and systems of fertilizing them. 



In addition, the station is working upon certain research problems in- 

 volving more fundamental and more strictly scientific investigation, and 

 requiring the approval of the director of the Federal Office of Experiment 

 Stations. The following are among the more prominent investigations 

 of this class : — 



1. To determine the principles which should underlie practice in the 

 use of fertilizers for the cranberry crop. 



2. Work in plant breeding in the endeavor to produce more rust- 

 resistant types of asparagus (in co-operation with the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, United States Department of Agriculture). 



3. The effect of food on the composition of milk and butter fat and 

 on the consistency of body of butter. 



4. Why insecticides burn foliage. 



5. Effects of meteorological conditions on the development of plants 

 and crops, both in health and disease. 



6. Relation of light to burning from spraying with fungicides and 

 insecticides. 



7. Relation of light to burning of vegetation from miscible oils. 



8. Study of interrelation of stock and scion in apples. 



9. The economic importance of digger wasps in relation to agriculture. 



10. The diagnosis of white diarrhoea in adult fowls. 



11. A study of the presence and disappearance of organic matter in 

 soils; its influence upon fertility. 



