TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



or THE 



MASSACHUSETTS STATE AGRICULTURAL 

 EXPERIMENT STATION", 



AiVIHERST, MASS. 



To the Honorable Board of Conlrol. 



Gentlemen : — The different lines of investigation de- 

 cided upon in preceding years have been pursued during the 

 past year. No material changes have been introduced in 

 reofard to the ijeneral character of the work assigned. The 

 different plans for the experiments presented from time to 

 time at the quarterly meetings for your endorsement have 

 been carried out as far as practicable to the full extent of 

 the means at hand. The results obtained in this connection 

 compare well with those of preceding years. The advanced 

 stage of some of the experiments imparts to the results 

 obtained for obvious reasons from year to year an increased 

 interest, and may claim for our reports a due consideration 

 on the part of our farming community as well as students of 

 agricultural progress in general. 



The feeding experiments with different kinds of farm live 

 stock, inaugurated soon after the establishment of the 

 Experiment Station, have received ever since most careful 

 attention. The inquiries into the economy of substituting 

 several reputed forage crops, new to our section of the coun- 

 try, for meadow hay in the daily diet of milch cows, have 

 been continued during the past year with much success. 

 Several new kinds of waste products of corn (maize) and 

 other grains have been tested with reference to their degree 

 of fitness to serve as ino;redients in efficient o-rain rations for 

 different kinds of fiirm live stock. Much work has been 

 accomplished in connection with the use of the Babcock 

 apparatus for the determination of fat in milk and cream. 



