6a EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



diseases; and in the Department of Entomology, for similar service in respect to 

 injurious insects. Work of this sort is essential and is not duplicated by any exist- 

 ing commercial organization. It is probably impossible, or if not impossible at 

 least impracticable, to divorce investigational work entirely from educational 

 work of this character. It should be recognized, however, that diagnosis and 

 analysis serve only as means to the end of improvement in certain directions. 

 As a matter of institutional policy, it is probable that, as soon as work of this kind 

 develops so as to be a serious drain on our investigational forces, it should be 

 organized under the Extension Service. This need is recognized by the Extension 

 Service, and will be met as soon as funds are available. 



Co-operative Organization of Extension Demonstration Projects. 



Since the Station finds it necessary to do some extension work, it follows at 

 once that a certain amount of research work, at least of fact-finding work of a 

 surve}' t^'pe, may have to be done by our Extension forces. This has been par- 

 ticularl}' the case in the field of farm management, and the technical subjects of 

 agronomy, pomolog}^ vegetable gardening and poultry husbandry. The field 

 demonstrations operated by some of these departments should give valuable 

 data worthy of permanent preservation. This value, however, depends always 

 on the authority back of the records taken. In order that this work may be better 

 done, and to insure preservation of such records as have value, some of these 

 demonstrations have been organized in the Station as co-operative projects. The 

 leader of these projects must make himself responsible for the accuracy of the 

 work. Unless he can vouch for the records presented thej' cannot be accepted. 

 It is too early as yet to speak of the success or failure of this plan. There are, 

 however, seven projects organized on this basis, as follows: 



"Poultry disease prevention and eradication" . . Extension Professor Monahan. 



"Artificial illumination of poultry" . . . Extension Professor Monahan. 



"The use of nitrate of soda in apple orchards" . Extension Professor Van Meter. 



"Controlling peach borers" ..... Extension Professor Van Meter. 



"Thinning apples" ...... Extension Professor Van Meter. 



"Comparison of results obtained in spraj'ing with 



spray rod and spray gun" ..... Extension Professor Van Meter. 



"Investigation of farm organization and labor ef- 

 ficiency on Massachusetts farms" . . . Professor Foord. 



In addition to the above there are two other co-operative proiects in which the 

 expenses are met by the Station, but the salaries paid from other funds. One of 

 these is the "Boston food supply study" carried out under the leadership of Dr. 

 McFall; the other, "Testing low lift pumps" with the work done bj^ the members 

 of the Department of Rural Engineering under the leadership of Professor Gunness. 

 These two projects are recorded in the reports on our investigational ser\ace. 



REPORT ON PROJECTS. 



Plant Nutrition and Soil Fertility. 



The problem of soil fertility is dominant in every agriculture. It becomes more 

 difficult as soils become older and agriculture becomes more intensive — and 

 Massachusetts soils are old soils, and its agriculture is becoming more and more 

 intensive. Orcharding, vegetable gardening, specialty vegetable growing such 

 as asparagus growing or onioii production, tobacco culture, cranberry culture — 

 these are typical of the agricultural activities developing in the State. The fertility 

 problems incident to the growing of these crops differ very greatly from those of 

 the general farm. But even on the livestock farm there are some difficult prcjblems, 

 particularly on our permanent pastures. For all of these reasons, therefore, it is 

 but natural and normal that a very large part of the Station resources should be 



