HANDBOOK OF CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURE. 2 o 



vision. The station correspondence is over 3,500 letters a 

 year. The members of the station staff are frequently called 

 upon for papers or addresses before the annual meeting of the 

 State Board of Agriculture, the Pomological Society, and the 

 Dairymen's Association, and at farmers' institutes, as well as 

 meetings of the county and subordinate granges. 



GENERAL RESULTS OF WORK. 



The Connecticut State Station has been a leader in the 

 establishment of fertilizer inspection in this country and in 

 investigations regarding the use of fertilizers and their effect 

 on the composition of the crop. The benefits of this work 

 have been very great and their influence has been widely ex- 

 tended. As a result of the constant supervision of the fertil- 

 izer market, fraudulent fertilizers have long been practically 

 excluded from the State. Although food inspection has been 

 in operation for only four years, a decided decrease in the 

 extent of adulterations is already noticed. 



Many of the co-operative experiments undertaken by this 

 station have been highly successful, and in this as well as in 

 other ways, much has been done to educate practical cultiva- 

 tors of the soil in matters pertaining to the application of 

 chemistry and other sciences to agriculture. 



In recent years the investigations on tobacco have helped 

 to enable Connecticut growers to improve the quality, and 

 hence maintain a relatively high price for their wrapper-leaf 

 tobacco. 



Through information and instruction given in its publica- 

 tions, and more particularly by the personal supervision of 

 the station staff and practical demonstrations made in various 

 parts of the State, the use of insecticides and fungicides, and 

 spraying with improved machinery, were first introduced into 

 Connecticut, to the very great benefit of the fruit and 

 vegetable industries. 



The larger nurseries of the State are annually inspected 

 by station officials for injurious insects or fungus pests. On 



