No. 4.] EXPERIMENT STATION. 217 



REPOKT OF COMMITTEE ON EXPERIMENTS AND 



STATION WORK. 



[Read and accepted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 9, 19CN5.] 



The State Board of Agriculture may be considered a kind 

 of board of trade for the farmer, and the experiment station 

 a clearing house for correcting errors in theory or practice. 



Farming in Massachusetts is of necessity confined chiefly 

 to the dairy, poultry, the orchard, and the market garden 

 in its broadest application, including plants and flowers. It 

 must therefore Ijc a benefit to visit the station, where the 

 busy professors are doing important work for the farmer, 

 showing him by their scientific investigations what to avoid 

 and what to adopt, without the expense of personal tests. 

 With the demands made upon the farmer in the production 

 of pure milk, by the requirements of the State Board of 

 Health and city boards, exacting improved stables, clean 

 milk cans, clean clothing, clean hands properly manicured, 

 the consumer should in return demand justice for the 

 farmer, in that he should be entitled to a higher price for 

 all this extraordinary care, instead of giving the benefit to 

 the middle man. 



The entomological department is in excellent condition, 

 with greatly improved facilities, more room having been 

 added for students and more for experimental work under 

 glass. 



The botanical department is doing valuable work in its 

 experiments in greenhouse cultures ; with the increasing 

 amount of market gardening many products are grown 

 under glass, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, etc. 



In the horticultural department the professor has devised 

 an. excellent system of judging fruits by points, which has, 



