WISCONSIN. 207 



ripening, including temperature variations from below zero to above 

 70° F. Variety tests of cereals have been carried on and a striking 

 demonstration made of the value of formaldehyde for preventing oat 

 smut. A cross between razor-back pigs and Poland Chinas has been 

 tried. The feeding experiments have included cost of ration for colts, 

 narrow v. wide ration for steers, dried v. cooked feeds for steers, peas 

 v. corn for pigs-, shelled v. ground corn for pigs, corn products v. oat 

 products for sheep and for cows, sorghum v. corn fodder for cows, 

 rape for milch cows, and salt for cows. The irrigation experiments 

 have included, among other things, the use of water in a rotation exper- 

 iment on 10 acres with corn, potatoes, and grass, and have been con- 

 ducted in cooperation with this Office. The station is also cooperating 

 with the Bureau of Chemistry of this Department in sugar-beet inves- 

 tigations, and with the Bureau of Plant Industry of this Department 

 in studies of the influence of origin of red-clover seed on yield of crop. 

 In cooperation with the breeders' association the station tests cows 

 for farmers, to determine the amount and quality of milk produced. 



The State legislature at its last session appropriated $150,000 for a 

 new agricultural building and made an addition of $10,000 to the 

 maintenance fund of the college. The new building will be 200 by 63 

 feet, four stories high, with a two-story octagon in the rear for library 

 and auditorium, and will furnish additional facilities for both the sta- 

 tion and the college of agriculture. This building is now in process 

 of construction, but will not be completed before January, 1903. The 

 legislature also passed a law placing the inspection of feeding stuffs in 

 the hands of the station. During the year an experimental union was 

 formed among the graduates and former students of the college, 

 similar in object and character to the Ontario Agricultural and Experi- 

 mental Union. The soil physicist of the station, Prof. F. H. King, 

 resigned recently to accept a position in the Bureau of Soils of this 

 Department, and the assistant soil physicist, A. R. Whitson, has been 

 placed in charge of the department. During the past year Professor 

 King published a text-book of the physics of agriculture. 



In 1899 the Wisconsin legislature passed a joint resolution provid- 

 ing that a medal be presented to Dr. S. M. Babcock, chemist of the 

 experiment station, who worked out and perfected the milk test 

 which bears his name, and has made many other contributions of the 

 greatest value to dairying. A committee appointed by Governor 

 Scofield procured a medal and arranged the details for its presenta- 

 tion. This ceremony took place at a joint session of the senate 

 and assembly in the State Capitol at Madison on the evening of March 

 27, 1901. Gov. Robert M. La Follette presided at the meeting and 

 gave an address in which he paid high tribute to Dr. Babcock for his 

 inventions and discoveries and for his unselfish dedication of them to 

 the public. Ogden H. Fethers, regent of the university, made the 



