REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 



SIDNEY B. HASKELL. 



REVIEW OF THE YEAR. 



The year just past has seen the completion of reorganization 

 of station work on a project basis. There have been a num- 

 ber of difficulties in attaining this end, among them being the 

 fact of many long-continued pieces of work, started in some 

 cases nearly thirty years ago, which were not adapted to present 

 methods of project organization. Through committee service, 

 however, all such projects have now been subjected to strict 

 analysis. Some of the older projects have been reorganized; 

 others have been brought to completion and await only suitable 

 time for publication. In making report on the present project 

 organization of the station, it seems best to ignore departmental 

 organization save in a minor way, and to classify on the basis 

 of service expected of the projects. 



Utilization of Station Work. 



A most encouraging development of the year has been the 

 increased utilization of station work in several lines of agricul- 

 tural endeavor. As concrete illustration, the organization by 

 the Massachusetts Fruit Growers' Association of a nursery 

 certification plan, whereby damage and loss arising from the 

 old difficulty of orchard stock being found untrue to name may 

 be obviated, is a direct result of an investigation started some 

 eight years ago by Dr. Shaw of the Department of Pomology. 

 The work of the Department of Botany has likewise found 

 immediate application in at least two different directions, — 

 first, in giving to the tobacco growers of the Connecticut 

 valley a method whereby "tobacco wildfire," a disease com- 

 paratively new in this section, may be controlled by spraying 

 of the seed-bed; and secondly, the demonstration, through the 



