GUAM AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 11 



THE COTOT STOCK FARM. 



As was briefly noted in the last annual report of the station, near 

 the end of the fiscal year 1914 a stock farm was purchased in the 

 district of Cotot. This farm is located about 10 miles, by wagon 

 and trail, south and east of this station. The long distance, com- 

 bined with the generally poor condition of the road to Cotot, made 

 the transportation of material for needed improvements difficult. 



The first improvement undertaken was the inclosing of a pasture 

 of about 150 acres of native grasses and timber. Woven-wire fence, 

 42 inches in height, with two strands of barbed wire on top, was 

 fastened to native timber posts deeply set in the soil. About half 

 of the fenced area is lowland, covered with timber and underbrush, 

 and the other half is medium lowland, growing excellent native 

 grass. The water supply is excellent, there being two ever-flowing 

 streams running through the pasture. It is generally considered in 

 Guam that the lowland pastures are most valuable in the dry season 

 in normal years, while for the wet season the higher lands are prefer- 

 able. But though the pasture at Cotot compares favorably with the 

 best native pastures of Guam, yet it has proved far from satisfactory 

 during the past season, which was characterized by a drought of 

 exceptional duration and severity. 



Fifteen native cows and one of the station's pure-bred bulls, Harry 

 Gray, were sent to Cotot December 29, 1914. Some of the cows, 

 especially those with young calves, are in poor condition at this time, 

 and the others have done only fairly well. The young bull, as the 

 report of the animal husbandman and veterinarian shows in detail 

 (see p. 28), did very poorly, and it became necessary to bring him 

 back to the station on February 13, 1915. By the end of the fiscal 

 year the bull had regained about a third of the 145 pounds lost and 

 he was returned to Cotot on June 30. It was doubtless true that the 

 principal cause of the bull's loss in weight came from tick infesta- 

 tion and not necessarily from the native pasturage alone. The bull 

 is now being kept relatively free from ticks, and grain, in addition 

 to the native pasturage, is provided for him. 



The experience of the past season with the native grasses and 

 underbrush for pasturing live stock at Cotot has clearly shown the 

 necessity of substituting for them the proved introduced pasture 

 grasses, such as PaspaluTn dilatatum and Para {PanicuTYi molle). 

 With this end in view, sufficient land has been cleared for planting 

 about one-half acre of each grass during the coming wet season to 

 provide grass roots for use in planting larger areas in the wet season 

 of 1916. 



Near the end of the fiscal year a three-room house was constructed 

 for the foreman. 



