4a EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan, 



REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 



FRED W. MORSE, ACTING DIRECTOR. 



It has been gratifying throughout the past year to note the 

 extent to which the experiment station is regarded as the insti- 

 tution for the investigation and sokition of agricultural prob- 

 lems. Requests for the investigation of definite problems have 

 come from several distinct lines of agriculture during the period. 



The county farm bureaus are united in the opinion that 

 more investigations of spray materials and their use are re- 

 quired. The various brands put on the market, of both in- 

 secticides and fungicides, although complying fully with the 

 Federal laws governing their sale, yet have such widely dif- 

 ferent directions for dilution of the concentrated pastes or the 

 dry powders, with resultant variations in the actual strengths 

 of the spray mixtures, that it is difficult to judge whether a 

 given brand is good or poor. The efficiency of different con- 

 centrations of insecticides and fungicides needs to be thoroughly 

 established. 



Climatic conditions affect some of the spray mixtures or the 

 plants to which they are applied, so that mixtures which are 

 safe in one section or at one time cause foliage injuries at other 

 times or in other places. This forms another problem which 

 needs study. 



The swine breeders have asked for a comprehensive study of 

 the use of garbage in feeding pigs, which to meet fully would 

 need a substation for swine husbandry in the vicinity of our 

 large cities. The problem is a really important one because 

 the statistics obtained by the Commissioner of Animal Industry 

 show that more than half the swine in the State are fed garbage, 

 and the industry is based mainly on the utilization of house- 

 hold and farm wastes. 



