THE EXPERIMENT STATION 43 



proximately $10,000,000 annually, and at a very conservative estimate 

 at least one-third of this value may be attributed directly to the ap- 

 plication of the protective measures based upon the experimental work 

 of the Experiment Station." 



ANIMAL PRODUCTION 



Investigations pertaining to the production of live stock has had 

 a large place in the Station's affairs from the beginning. In fact the 

 very first bulletin put out reporting the results of an investigation was 

 on the subject of ensilage. This has been followed by more elaborate 

 studies, increasing in intricacy according to the demands of developing 

 knowledge. During the years under our consideration great changes 

 have taken place in scientific thought relative to food values in re- 

 lation to composition. We take pride in the progressiveness of our 

 nutrition investigators in keeping up with the procession of changing 

 ideas. They have run the whole gamut of these new ideas, from 

 enzymes and special proteids, to vitamines ; and we find their bulletins 

 always making real, up-to-date contributions to the knowledge of their 

 day. In the later experiments on feeding, no little consideration has 

 been given to critical studies of methods used and analysis of results 

 obtained, the importance of which is coming more and more to be 

 recognized in all kinds of scientific research. (I cannot refrain from 

 taking opportunity at this point to observe that if our Experiment Sta- 

 tion work is to carry the stamp of thoroness and reliability, the 

 public must exercise some patience at times in awaiting results that 

 must first be scrutinized for scientific accuracy by the best methods 

 known to science before they are given out for publication.) 



The improvement of live stock through breeding has also re- 

 ceived attention, and many splendid specimens of their respective 

 classes have been produced. Through the establishment of a division 

 of genetics, thorogoing investigations have been undertaken to learn 

 the fundamental principles underlying the art of breeding. Just so 

 far as these genetic principles are discovered and applied, just that 

 much will the breeding art be advanced. 



A most practical experiment in the breeding of cattle to learn 

 the genetic behavior of the milk-producing functions of the dairy cow 

 is now in progress, and the information to be derived from these ex- 

 periments must have a far-reaching effect upon the future dairy in- 

 dustry. 



