x maine state college 



Acknowledgments. • 



It gives me great pleasure to state that the relations which my 

 associates have sustained toward myself and one another have 

 been of the most pleasant character. The Station force seems to 

 be working together in a spirit of cordial co-operation which is 

 very gratifying, and whatever work may have been accomplished 

 that is creditable, is not due to the efforts of any single person, 

 but to the Station officers as a body. 



Public opinion is very apt in approving or condemning the 

 work of a particular experiment station to place the praise or blame 

 largely upon its director. In a sense that is right, because it is in 

 general his duty to make an effort that only efficient men and 

 means Bnd a place in the Station equipment ; but after all, the 

 success or failure of the station and the scientific and practical 

 value of the results that it reaches, are very largely determined by 

 the enthusiasm and care which each station officer gives to his 

 work. 



The officers of the Station have been greatly encouraged by the 

 readiness with which the farmers of the State have responded to 

 calls for information and to requests for assistance in conducting 

 experiments. 



The Station finds it necessary to carry on a certain amount of 

 work in various parts of the State, more or less distant from the 

 Station, and this is made possible only by the cordial co-operation 

 of intelligent farmers. 



Each year it will be found necessary to make tests of fertilizers 

 and insecticides on farms and in orchards in various parts of the 

 State, besides which it is proposed to distribute varieties of fruits 

 to be grown in different localities, and we may expect from this 

 work valuable results. 



The share which each Station officer has had in the work 

 accomplished during the past year is in general indicated by the 

 contents of this Report. It is but fair to say, however, that the 

 amount of work accomplished by the Station chemists, Mr. Bart- 

 lett and Mr. Merrill, is much larger than would appear from the 

 printed matter with which their names are directly associated. As 

 a matter of fact the most laborious part of the work pertaining to 

 analyses of cattle foods, digestion experiments, tests of diary 

 breeds, and especially inspection of fertilizers, has fallen upon 

 them. Attention is called to the work of the Station chemists, 

 not for the purpose of giving especial prominence, but rather that 



