State are: (1) Short-lived and quick-maturing annuals, especially 

 legumes, for the production of forage in summer and for the 

 improvement of the cotton lands; (2) winter annuals, such as the 

 vetches and clovers, that will produce late fall and winter and early 

 spring forage, will improve the lands, and will not interfere with the 

 regular crop of cotton ; (3) cover crops for orchards in the fruit- 

 growing sections. It would seem that in this State the great ques- 

 tion is not only to find crops that can be grown, but to encourage 

 the raising of more stock, which, in turn, will increase the demand 

 for forage and bring about more general rotation of crops on the 

 farm. 



On account of its large size and the great variety of soil and cli- 

 matic conditions included within its boundaries, Texas presents a 

 variety of forage problems, some of which are exceedingly compli- 

 cated. The stock industry is by far the most important one in the 

 State and is carried on in all the different ways, from the open rang- 

 ing of large herds in the western part of the State, the large areas 

 of fenced lands in the middle and northern parts, to the more inten- 

 sive methods of the closely settled sections in the southern and 

 eastern parts. In this State are to be met the problems of range 

 improvement, drought-resistant forage crops, annuals for rotation 

 with the cotton crop, winter annuals for winter and spring pastur- 

 age, formation, care, and management of permanent meadows and 

 pastures, and crops suitable for alkali soils and for the overflowed 

 lands of the coast and river bottoms. At the station at Abilene, 

 much has already been accomplished in demonstrating the practica- 

 bility of improving the fenced ranges and in testing drought- resistant 

 grasses and forage crops. At the State experiment station the value 

 of alfalfa and the sorghums has been well demonstrated, an excellent 

 plan of cooperation between the station and the farmers of the State 

 has been devised and put into successful operation, and a considera- 

 ble amount of preliminary work has been done in the improvement 

 of the native pastures by the use of Bermuda grass, bur clover, and 

 other introduced varieties. The State is so large and the problems 

 to be met so great and so numerous that it is a difficult matter to 

 select any one line of investigation for Deparmental and station coop- 

 eration without feeling that other lines of perhaps equal importance 

 are demanding attention. After a long conference with the 

 director and the agriculturist of the station, there seemed to be four 

 lines of investigation along which cooperative work might be arranged, 

 and they are here given in what seems to be, under the present con- 

 ditions, their relative importance. The first question is that of the 

 improvement of meadows and pastures, particularly in the middle 



