ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PORTO RICO AGRICULTURAL 

 EXPERIMENT STATION FOR 1901. 



By F. D. Gardner, Special Agent in Charge. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



The first appropriation for agricultural investigations in Porto Rico 

 was made for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1901. This appropriation 

 was $5,000, and authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to determine 

 the agricultural conditions existing in that island with special reference 

 to the most desirable localities for agricultural experiment stations, as 

 well as the subjects on which the agricultural people of the island are 

 in most immediate need of practical information, and how this need 

 can be most economically and effectively supplied; but it did not provide 

 for the establishment and maintenance of an experiment station. The 

 preliminary investigation called for by this appropriation was made 

 through the Office of Experiment Stations by Prof. S. A. Knapp, for- 

 merly of the Iowa Agricultural College, and more recently engaged 

 in agricultural enterprises in southern Louisiana. He visited Porto 

 Rico during the summer of 1900, and made his final report in Septem- 

 ber of that year. This report was transmitted to Congress and pub- 

 lished as House Doc. No. 171 (Fifty-sixth Congress, second session). 

 It contains a summarized statement regarding the climate, soil, and 

 agriculture of the island, shows in what ways the experiment station 

 might benefit agriculture, and recommends the establishment of a sta- 

 tion as soon as practicable. Professor Knapp advises that the station 

 should give immediate attention to promoting the production of larger 

 and better crops of coffee, sugar, and tobacco, and food products for 

 home consumption, and that at an early da} T work should be undertaken 

 in horticulture, forestry, animal husbandry, and dairying. Besides con- 

 ducting experiments, it should give object lessons in improved farming 

 and should disseminate information by Dublications and agricultural 

 meetings. 



On the basis of this report Congress made a second appropriation 

 ($12,000) for the current fiscal year, which authorized the Secretary 

 of Agriculture "to establish and maintain an agricultural experiment 

 station in Porto Rico, including the erection of buildings, the print- 

 ing (in Porto Rico), illustration, and distribution of reports and bulle- 



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