36 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



WM. P. BROOKS, agriculturist; E. S. FULTON, E. F. GASKILL, ASSISTANTS. 



The work in the department of agriculture in the experiment 

 station has followed the usual lines during the past year. The 

 most important investigations in progress have reference to 

 what in general may be denominated fertility problems. They 

 are designed to throw light upon various questions connected 

 with the selection, use and methods of application of manures 

 and commercial fertilizers. A considerable number of the ex- 

 periments in progress has already continued for a number of 

 years, and the results are becoming increasingly valuable, as they 

 afford, with the passage of the years, surer indications as to the 

 ultimate effects to be expected. The number of field plots on 

 the station grounds used in the experiments the past year was 

 351. 



Pot experiments have been continued and have been designed 

 chiefly to throw light upon the relative values of different ma- 

 terials which may be used, respectively, as sources of nitrogen, 

 phosphoric acid and potash. Tests of this character afford the 

 surest indications as to the relative availability of different ma- 

 terials. The principal crops used in this work are Japanese 

 barnyard millet, soy beans and dwarf Essex rape. We have 

 used 346 pots during the past year. In some phases of our 

 work, mainly as a check upon field results, we use closed plots, 

 and the number of these in use the past season was 167. 



The experiments in progress will not be taken up in detail in 

 this report ; but attention is called to some of the more striking 

 results. 



