16 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



Buildings. 



No important new buildings have been erected during the past 

 year. We have, however, put up, bj use of ordinary station 

 funds, three portable brooder houses. These houses are of the 

 Cornell University pattern. They are heated by gasoline and 

 each will accommodate 200 chickens. 



Extensive improvements have been made in the old station 

 barn and stables. A large part of the old floor in the main 

 barn has been torn out and a concrete floor put in its place. 

 A cellar 25 by 56 feet in size has been made under the stables. 

 This will provide greatly needed additional room for winter 

 storage of fruits and vegetables. The old stable partitions and 

 fittings have been removed, and a solid concrete floor has been 

 laid over the old plank floor, while new stall partitions and 

 fittings will take the place of the old. These improvements 

 have been carried out with funds appropriated by the last Legis- 

 lature. 



Particular attention is called to the fact that additional room 

 must be provided in our chemical laboratory. The provision 

 of such room is made imperative by the demands made upon us 

 for research work, the rooms upon one side of the laboratory 

 being; used in the fertilizer control and those on the other side in 



CD 



the feed and dairy control work. These rooms are fairly suffi- 

 cient for the control work; l)ut they do not provide either the 

 .space or the conditions essential for chemical research work. In 

 spite of all possible efforts to prevent such results it is inevitable 

 that the analytical work connected with the examination of fer- 

 tilizers and feeds will sometimes load the air with fumes which 

 might vitiate absolutely the research work going on, and this 

 might mean a tremendous loss of time and the sacrifice of the 

 results of much skilled work. To undertake to carry on re- 

 search work under such risks must, of course, be extremely un- 

 satisfactory ; but even could such risks be avoided, the working- 

 conditions in a laboratory where control work is being prose- 

 cuted are not favorable to research work. Research work re- 

 quires undisturbed quiet. Tn the presence of numerous men en- 

 gaged in ordinary routine chemical work there must necessarily 



