786 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Colorado experiment station, is ppgress- 

 ing satisfactorily. During the fiscal year 

 1 1 foals, the progeny of selected parents, 

 were dropped — 2 males and 9 females. 

 No additional horses were purchased. 



The work in breeding Morgan horses, 

 which is being carried on in cooperation 

 with the Vermont experiment station, has 

 been greatly extended through the gen- 

 erosity of a public-spirited citizen of Ver- 

 mont, who donated to the department a 

 farm of 400 acres near Middlebury, to be 

 used in these operations. There were in 

 the Vermont stud on July i, 1907, i stal- 

 lion, 9 brood mares, i two-year-old filly, 

 8 younger fillies, and i weanling colt. 



There is great need of a breed of sheep 

 suitable to the range conditions of the 

 West, the requirements being for sheep 

 that will yield a profitable clip of wool, 

 produce good mutton lambs, and stand 

 flocking in large numbers. It is believed 

 possible to combine these characteristics 

 in one breed, and with this idea in mind 

 an experiment was begun in the fall of 

 1906 in cooperation with the Wyoming 

 experiment station. Eighty-nine ewes 

 and four rams have been purchased for 

 foundation stock. 



Experiments in developing a milking 

 strain of short-horn cattle have been be- 

 gun in cooperation with the Minnesota 

 experiment station and with nine Minne- 

 sota breeders, the latter having agreed to 

 allow their herds to be used and to man- 

 age them according to instructions of the 

 department and the station. 



MILK OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 



A feature of the year's work was the 

 investigation of the milk supply of Wash- 

 ington, D. C. Nine hundred and sixteen 

 dairies and dairy herds, with 16,446 cows, 

 were inspected and rated in accordance 

 with a score card prepared by the Dairy 

 Division. With few exceptions, the con- 

 ditions found were very unsatisfactory, 

 the average score being only 45 out of a 

 possible 100. This result may be con- 

 sidered as giving some indication of the 

 quality and condition of the milk supply 

 of the country, as it is believed that the 



conditions around Washington are no 

 worse than those existing around other 

 large cities. 



The department is taking an imoortant 

 part in the general movement for a better 

 milk supply, and assistance in that direc- 

 tion has been rendered to a number of 

 cities. 



PREVENTION OF "peach BLIGHT" 



For a number of years it has been a 

 problem with pathologists to find some 

 successful way of treating the peach with 

 fungicides in order not to injure the 

 foliage. Some of the standard fungi- 

 cides often cause complete defoliation. 

 For this reason it has been found difficult 

 to control a number of serious diseases 

 afl^ecting the peach by any of the ordi- 

 nary treatments. This year it was dis- 

 covered that a sulphur wash made by 

 combining lime and sulphur, with no 

 other heat than that produced by the slak- 

 ing of the lime, gave a preparation which 

 was not injurious to peach foliage and 

 which prevented the scab and reduced 

 peach rot to 10 per cent on the sprayed 

 trees, whereas unsprayed trees had 75 

 per cent of the disease. This fungicide, 

 further, completely prevented the leaf- 

 spot fungi and produced no injury what- 

 ever, either to foliage or fruit. While 

 this preparation has been previously used 

 in winter, when the trees were dormant, 

 this is the first time it has been tried on 

 trees in active growth, with the success 

 as indicated. 



Last year mention was inade in this re- 

 port of a very serious disease of the peach 

 in California, popularly known as "peach 

 blight." Experiments were conducted 

 during last fall and winter for the control 

 of this disease, and, as the result of this 

 work, it was found that the disease could 

 be completely controlled by the use of 

 standard Bordeaux mixture or lime and 

 sulphur wash applied early in the fall, 

 about the time of the first rains. The 

 methods recommended by the department 

 were widely used in California the past 

 season with complete success, and we 

 have been reliably informed that the treat- 



