ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



or TUE 



MASSACHUSETTS STATE AGRICULTURAL 

 EXPERIMENT STATION, 



AMHERST, MASS. 



To the Honorable Board of Control. 



Gextle.^ien : — The work carried on at the State Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station (hiring the past year compares 

 favorably with that of the preceding year. The various 

 lines of investigation })resented for your consideration and 

 indorsement at the different meetings of the Board have been 

 followed up to the full extent of the resources at my dis- 

 posal. The results obtained in some cases cannot fail to be 

 of more than ordinary interest to the farmers of our State, 

 while in others more time is needed for observation to draw 

 reliable conclusions from the results thus far secured. 



The recent additions and improvements in the outfit of the 

 feeding department have aided materiall}^ in the investigation 

 of more intricate questions of animal nutrition. The eco- 

 nomical production of milk, beef, mutton, veal and pork has 

 received serious attention. New concentrated feed stuffs, as 

 well as coarse fodder articles raised upon the station grounds 

 and new to our section of the country, have been practi- 

 cally tested, to ascertain their relative economical value as 

 compared with current modes of feeding. The digestibility 

 of various concentrated feed stuffs has been carefully tested 

 by Dr. J. B, Lindsey in a series of trials with sheep. Ex- 

 periments for ascertaining the relative economy of feeding 

 skim-milk to young pigs and calves raised for the meat 

 market have been instituted. A detailed account of these 

 experiments will be found farther on under the following 

 headings : — 



