■22 N. H. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION [Bulletin 199 



ably be turned into beef. In order to assist in settling this mat- 

 ter the Station secured ten Hereford steer calves, and putting 

 itself in the place of the farmer fed native hay balanced with cot- 

 tonseed meal and wheat bran, keeping careful figures on costs and 

 profits. The results, which are set forth in the bulletin on ''Cost 

 of Raising Beef Cattle in New Hampshire," give as definite an 

 answer to this problem as it is possible to make. 



TAXES LEVIED BY DISEASES AND PESTS 



And now let us speak of taxes. • The levy made upon farm land 

 and buildings by the State of New Hampshire is in many ways the 

 least important of the taxes which the farmer has to pay. The 

 bill which is presented every year by the insect pests and plant 

 and animal diseases in the state amounts — on a conservative esti- 

 mate—to at least $3,500,000; and it is paid in full. The potato 

 blight, flea beetle, aphis, gypsy moth, tuberculosis of dairy cows, 

 hog cholera, etc., know no mercy; and many of them would con- 

 fiscate the entire crop if no control measures were practised. As 

 it is, there is perhaps no question asked so insistently of the Ex- 

 periment Station as : 



HOW CAN WE REDUCE THE TAXES PAID TO 

 PESTS AND DISEASES? 



If a thief were abroad in the state who each year stole three and 

 a half millions of dollars, there would be almost no limit to the 

 amount of a state-wide subscription to detect the guilty person 

 and to put a stop to the outrageous loss of property. Yet the 

 tribute paid to pests and diseases by the farmers of the state is no 

 less enormous because it is insidious. 



Research work in most state experiment stations includes 

 veterinary science, but has had to be confined at the New Hamp- 

 shire Station principally to plant diseases and insect pests. Here 

 the results of the work have shown very real returns on the 

 investment. 



Previous to the formation of departments in botany and en- 

 tomology at the Station in the early nineties, little was known of 

 ■either the fungous diseases or insect pests that damaged the 



