KANSAS. 101 



cultural features and the effects of disinfectants; digestion experi- 

 ments; field experiments on a large scale with soy beans, especially 

 with reference to soil inoculation; cowpeas for hay; thickening the 

 stand of alfalfa, especially the influence of disking after each cutting; 

 variety tests of a large number of grasses and forage plants on a small 

 scale; propagation of some of the native grasses from seed; wheat 

 breeding by cross fertilization; corn breeding with a view to increas- 

 ing the nitrogen content; study of the relation between specific gravity 

 and nitrogen content of corn; testing of sugar beets grown by farm- 

 ers of the State; study of native plums and plum breeding by selec- 

 tion and cross fertilization; enlargement of the variety test of 

 apples; study of certain prevalent diseases of orchard and nursery 

 trees, especially the crown gall; the relation of apple rust to red cedar; 

 defoliating fungi of the plum and cherry, and leaf curl of the peach; 

 elaboration of the results of many years' observations upon the trees 

 and shrubs available for lawn and park decoration; studies of plum 

 insects, the apple worm, the canker worm, and other orchard pests; 

 study of aphids, especially those of the garden vegetables, and the 

 wheat louse; and a review of the entire hemipterous fauna of the State. 

 In cooperation with the Bureau of Plant Industry of this Depart- 

 ment, the station has inaugurated a series of experiments with grasses 

 and forage plants in Harper County, a region of limited rainfall, and 

 also in pasture and range grass improvement. Plans have also been 

 made for cooperative experiments with the Bureau in the origination 

 and testing of varieties of wheat and with the Bureau of Forestry in 

 tree planting. Since the recent fire the chemical department of the 

 station has been very poorly housed and equipped. The State, how- 

 ever, has given $70,000 for a new chemical and physical building which 

 will not only provide quarters for the chemical department of the sta- 

 tion, but will enable the director to bring together in one place certain 

 work connected with his office which is now scattered through various 

 college buildings. The agricultural department is renting various 

 pieces of land in the vicinity of Manhattan, but it is expected that a 

 portion of the Government reservation of 7,000 acres at Fort Hays, 

 which has been turned over by act of Congress to the Agricultural 

 College and State Normal School, will soon be available for experi- 

 mental purposes. The last legislature appropriated $5,000 for the 

 purchase of pure-bred farm stock, and the station has added to its 

 equipment several pieces of valuable apparatus. At the beginning of 

 the present fiscal year the board of regents created a chair of dairy 

 husbandry in the college. During the year the veterinarian resigned 

 to accept a similar position in the North Carolina college, and was suc- 

 ceeded by N. S. Mayo, of the Connecticut Agricultural College, Storrs, 

 who was veterinarian at the Kansas college and station several years 

 ago. The botanist resigned to become assistant agrostologist in this 

 Department, and was succeeded by H. F. Roberts. 



