AUG. 4 
540 
THE RURAL f4EW-¥©RfCIR. 
outfit of the different station*, and the per¬ 
sonal bias of the Director. The country is 
too large and conditions are too varied to 
make parallel lines of work either profitable 
or desirable. 
3. We endeavor to reach the farmers of the 
State through the various organizations, the 
“Alliance,” “Grange,” “Wheel,” etc., and by 
correspondence, both personal and through the 
press. Calls for special investigations in differ¬ 
ent parts of the State receive a prompt response, 
and a representative of the station attends 
all important agricultural meetings. By these 
and other similar means we are securing a 
large corps of correspondents who express a 
lively interest in the work of the station. 
S. M. TRACY, DIRJBCTOR. 
A. & M. College, Miss. 
COLORADO EXPERIMENT STATION. 
1. The Colorado Agricultural Experiment 
Station was organized on February 30,1888, by 
the State Board of Agriculture, under the 
auspices of the State Agricultural College, of 
which this Board is in charge. It is organized 
as one department of the college, and known 
as the Agricultural Experiment Station De¬ 
partment. 
3. Lines of experiments are undertaken by 
each of four departments, namely, Agricul¬ 
ture, Horticulture (including bee-keeping), 
Chemistry and Irrigation Engineering (includ¬ 
ing meteorology). The most important feature 
at present seems to be to test the growth and 
acclimation of a large variety of plants in 
agriculture and horticulture, under the pecu¬ 
liar conditions which exist in this State. Aside 
from these,soil tests, comparing tests of varie¬ 
ties, a study of alkali soils, of the effect of tile 
drainage, of soil with and without irrigation 
under vary ing circumstances, are some of the 
most important which are being tried here. I 
am not prepared at this time to suggest any 
experiments which can profitably be worked 
out by all the stations. In my judgment it 
would be better to take up a few subjects of 
vital importance, and work them up carefully 
and thoroughly, and not diversify .the work 
of the station too much. 
I realize the fact that the people and the 
farmers of the country will be apt to call up¬ 
on the stations for immediate results, and if 
these are not forthcoming to raise the cry 
that nothing is being done, and thus to strive 
to endanger the appropriation, and destroy 
the work of the stations. It is farmers, as a 
rule, who will be chiefly likely to demand 
those experiments which any person could 
easily try for himself, and it seems to me 
that the strength and force of the stations 
would be much frittered away in such work. 
While some work of this character will be 
undertaken here, we hope after a distribution 
of various seeds, plants and trees has taken 
place, to do some close scientific work. 
It seems to me the best plan to interest the 
farm irs, in the stations, is embodied in the 
text of the bill, with reference to the publish¬ 
ing of bulletins, which are to be distributed 
to the farmers of the State. If they are not 
interested by receiving these so as to corre¬ 
spond , ask questions, and in other ways use 
the workers of the stations, I know of no way 
in which they can be interested. It is yet 
early with us and we have not fully system- 
ized everything. We have been careful not 
to plan more than we can execute this year, 
hoping to enlarge our field of work year by 
year. c. l. ingersoli,, director. 
Fort Collins, Colo. 
THE NEVADA EXPERIMENT STATION. 
1. The State University of Nevada is lo¬ 
cated at Reno in one of the most beautiful and 
fertile valleys of the Great Basin. One of 
the departments of the institution is the State 
Agricultural Experiment Station, established 
in 1887. Prior to this date several acres of 
land had been purchased for agricultural pur¬ 
poses, but the scarcity of funds incident to 
young universities in the West had prevented 
the practical organization of an experiment 
station until the §15,000 available from the 
Hatch bill was assured. 
2. Thus far our experiments have been con¬ 
fined to tree plantings, the growth of Alfal¬ 
fa, irrigation, the cultivation of shrubs and 
plants, the germination of seeds, and careful 
observation of the temperature and moisture 
of the atmosphere. It is proposed here to 
take up the careful study of the flora of this 
State in connection with the observations and 
experiments connected with the growth of 
grasses in particular and of such fruits and 
vegetables as seem adapted for cultivation in 
this State. Incidentally attention will be 
given to forestry, entomology and breeds of 
stock. Irrigation, artesian wells and the 
storage of water by dams will not be omitted 
from our practical work, as the water prob¬ 
lem will always be of great interest to Neva¬ 
da. In my own judgment, each State will do 
best by taking up those subjects in which her 
people are especially interested and which 
may from the circumstances be studied most 
successfully. Thus Nevada, being engaged 
largely in stock raising, and water being 
scarce here, the study of grasses and of 
water problems should be pursued care¬ 
fully in our Experiment Stations. For 
like reasons, California should g ve especial 
attention to viticulture ; Louisiana to sugar 
raising, etc. 
In all schools of agriculture, the use of car¬ 
penter’s tools should be taught in addition to 
the usual studies which include the English 
language, the elements of mathematics, 
physics, chemistry, botany, zoology and com 
parative anatomy. 
3. Undoubtedly the local press and a sys¬ 
tem of meetings in which addresses and dis¬ 
cussions find a place on the program will do 
much to interest farmers in experiment sta¬ 
tions, and the circulation of bulletins will be 
as extensive as the real worth of the experi¬ 
ments described. Haste with this great work 
must be made slowly in order to secure that 
accuracy which alone is valuable in all scien¬ 
tific investigation, and which will constitute 
the foundation of all the permanent success of 
agricultural experiment stations. 
LE ROY D. BROWN, DIRECTOR, 
Reno, Nev. 
CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT STATION. 
The scope of the work intended to be done 
hereafter, will be essentially the same as that 
carried on heretofore. The first need of the 
State is to determine what cultures can be 
most successfully pursued in the widely-varied 
climatic and soil regions. The determination 
and study of the latter will of necessity be 
steadily pursued as the necessary basis for the 
selection of proper culture plants and methods 
of cultivation, which in their turn will form 
the main subject occupying the outlying “cul¬ 
ture stations,” as well as the basis of the dis¬ 
tribution of seeds and plants for them by in¬ 
telligent individuals, forming so many addi¬ 
tional local experiment stations. In the same 
connection, the study of natural fertilizers 
and of waters, both for irrigation and domes¬ 
tic use, is essential, and with these the contin¬ 
ued investigation of the “alkali land” ques¬ 
tion from both the practical and scientific 
points of view, the technical as well as ulti¬ 
mate analyses of agricultural products from 
the different sections of the State form a ne¬ 
cessary part of the study of their peculiarities 
and adaptations. This is especially true of the 
grape product, and there will be no diminu¬ 
tion of the large attention heretofore given to 
the character of the grapes and wines from 
the several grape-growing regions, and to the 
best methods of vinification under the locally- 
existing conditions. The correction of the 
nomenclature of grape varieties, as well as of 
other fruits, will receive much ^needed atten¬ 
tion, both by the naming of samples sent for 
examination, and by the exhibition of collec¬ 
tions of fruit from the standard orchard, at 
the principal fairs: also by the distribution of 
cions from the same. 
The identification of noxious and beneficial 
insects, and the determination of the means 
for repressing the former, will also continue 
to form an important branch of our work. 
But in order to pursue this intelligently and 
successfully, we need the full time of a spec¬ 
ialist in entomology, who will make both the 
science and practice of economic entomology 
his special work. For this purpose it may be 
necessary to invoke further aid from the 
State. As the use of commercial fertilizers is 
as yet in its infancy in California, no “State 
fertilizer control” has as yet been established. 
Without such official control, the analysis of 
samples of fertilizers is ordinarily of little 
public utility, and the station will not as a 
rule consider this as part of its work. 
It is thought proper that, so long as the 
present active demand for information and 
investigations of direct practical importance 
continues, subjects of more remote or merely 
theoretical interest should receive only such 
attention as can be given incidentally in con¬ 
nection with the working-out of practical 
problems. The materials and opportunities 
for so doing are abundant even now. 
To the question, “How shall we interest the 
farmers in the work of the stations?” our pre¬ 
sent answer must be that so long as the in¬ 
quiries made and work asked for exceed the 
means of the station to deal with them, we see 
no need of special measures to increase the 
popular interest. The same is true as regards 
the circulation of the bulletins and reports, 
which increases quite as rapidly as the means 
will permit us to supply the demand. 
There can be no doubt that such active in¬ 
terest on the part of farmers in availing them¬ 
selves of the aid offered them by the stations 
in solving their practical questions and diffi¬ 
culties, is an essential condition of the present 
usefulness of the stations. But it is none the 
less true that the work of the stations, in or¬ 
der to be “to the point,” must be based upon 
an accurate knowledge of the natural condi¬ 
tions under which agriculture is carried on 
in the several regions of each State or Terri¬ 
tory. Unfortunately these important factors 
remain as yet largely undetermined even in 
other States, and the resources made available 
by the Hatch bill are totally inadequate to 
their systematical ascertainment. West of 
the Mississippi River, the only hope of obtain¬ 
ing them lies in the “classification of lands ” 
originally provided for as the first duty of the 
U. S. Geological Survey. 
Berkley, Cal. e. a. hilgard, director. 
THE STORRS SCHOOL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
At this early date it is not possible to out¬ 
line exactly the future work of the station. 
The chief immediate attention will be given 
to experiments upon the growth, nutrition 
and fertilizing of plants, and the adaptability 
and value of different plants for culture in 
Connecticut. The work already begun in¬ 
cludes: 
1. Co-operative field experiments on the ef¬ 
fects of fertilizers and the production of 
crops. These have been undertaken by the 
station in Mansfield, and by a considerable 
number of farmers under the direction of the 
station, in all the counties of the State. 
3. Vegetation experiments in pots and 
boxes, for studying the question of the sources 
of the nitrogen of plants. 
3. Arrangements for a botanic garden, 
to test the adaptability and values of grasses 
and other plants for culture in Connecticut. 
Fruits will also be tested, in accordance with 
the plan already established by the State 
Board of Agriculture, the Storrs School 
Farm being the station for Tolland County. 
Provision is being made for studies of the 
root-development of plants, and of the val¬ 
ues of foods and feeding stuffs, by chemical 
analyses and experiments with the calorime¬ 
ter. As future circumstances allow, work in 
other lines will naturally be undertaken. 
W. O. ATWATER, DIRECTOR. 
Mansfield, Conn. 
Clip 
A CHEAP APIARY. 
Mr. Wm. Brattle, of Aurora, Ills., call6 the 
structure shown at Fig. 276, “A cheap and 
convenient apiary or summer-and-winter 
stand for bees.” It is a frame building, 10 
x 16 feet, eight feet from floor to ceiling. The 
door is in the south and a double window 
in the north. The studding in both ends are 
sided up inside and out with ship-lapped lum¬ 
ber and the space between and that above the 
ceiling are packed with chaff or saw-dust to 
the depth of five or six inches. 
Fig. 276. 
The sides are made double of lumber eight 
inches wide. The lower inside board, being 
sawed so as to fit between the studdings, of 
which there are three in each side, is hinged 
to the floor and falls outwards, the ends being 
sawed on a 'miter on each side of the studding 
thus making a reasonably tight joint when 
the board is raised; the next board is nailed 
solidly the whole length; the next one sawed 
as before and hinged to the top of the second 
board and alternately to the top. The out¬ 
side boards are left the entire length and are 
put on the reverse of the inner ones, the upper 
joard being first nailed on, the next one 
hinged to its lower edge and so on, or a two- 
inch strip could be nailed on with its lower 
edge eight inches below the plate, and the 
second board hinged to its lower edge and a 
strip cut to fit between its upper edge and the 
cornice board hinged to its upper edge. In 
summer, by lowering the inner doors and 
raising the outer doors and hooking them up, 
the bees have free access to the hives while 
they can be protected from heavy driving 
rains by unhooking the outer doors and lower¬ 
ing them. 
In Winter by closing all the doors and pack¬ 
ing between them with chaff a good, warm 
room is obtained. 
FOLLOWING NATURE’S METHOD OF 
MANURING AND MULCHING. 
To preserve moisture and coolness in the 
soil is a prime necessity, in small-fruit cul¬ 
ture. In my experience I find manure and 
soil-stirring of decidedly secondary import¬ 
ance. These fruits do not draw hard on those 
manurial elements which are necessary for 
full crops of cereals, and they don’t require 
and don’t like to be pushed into rapid, succu¬ 
lent, tender growth, like most vegetables. I 
have, for several years, looked rather to Na¬ 
ture’s own process of culture than to any 
theories of man’s device; for these are con¬ 
tinually tripping while Nature’s growths are 
everywhere healthful and strong where not 
interfered with by man or his domestic ani¬ 
mals. Nature does not plow except by means 
of the frost, nor manure except with the 
leaves and other wastes of growth, and with 
the slo w weatherings of the rocks. 
I have been imitating this simple course. 
The raspberry rows that have been kept 
mulched for five or six years, mostly with 
their own prunings, sheared off in lengths 
straight enough to lie close and flat, have 
done admirably well without any tillage, 
more than now and then here and there to 
scuffle out incipient weeds, of which there 
are almost none, and redundant suckers which 
are rubbed out as soon as they show their 
noses. Quite a layer of black mold has al¬ 
ready accumulated on the surface, and, 
without any digging or soil-stirring at all, 
the growth is so strong that Cuthberts be¬ 
come top-heavy, and many canes grow too 
large to mature well, and I am giving prece¬ 
dence to the trim, erect, clean, well-ripening 
Marlboro. 
I treat strawberry beds quite similarly, us¬ 
ing no raw stable manure, I introduce no 
weed seeds and I take care to grow none of 
my own. I mulch well before Christmas with 
tan or sawdust which, remaining on the top, 
does not sour, but in one year becomes so car¬ 
bonized as to do no apparent harm if dug into 
the soil. One bed of Cumberland has not been 
dug or replanted for eight years, and is now 
as well set with strong, healthy-looking plants 
as most others. As soon as practicable after 
picking is over, the old exhausted plants are 
chopped out and their runners thinned to 18 
or 20 inches apart. This is heroic work, and 
seems to leave nothing but devastation, but it 
is rapidly done, and when the autumn rains 
come strong, new growth sets in, and I take 
care that there is no competing growth. The 
soil is mostly clay, some of it heavy, but this, 
compact as it gets under this system of little 
tillage, yields quite as well as any of the mel¬ 
lower loam. This method of culture is well 
suited for female fruit growers, as there is 
very little heavy labor attending it, but there 
is never any lack of something to do, except 
just in the hottest of the summer and the 
dead of the winter. w. 
Tyrone, Pa. 
THE JESSIE STRAWBERRY. 
I notice in a late issue of the Rural re¬ 
ports of the behavior of new strawberries at 
the Rural Grounds. It appears that the Jes¬ 
sie, while doing fairly well there, has not ac¬ 
complished anything remarkable. We must 
not expect to secure a variety of strawberry 
that will do equally well in all localities in all 
seasons. Reports from one locality one sea¬ 
son may be reversed the next, owing to cir¬ 
cumstances not easily accounted for. Jessie 
has distinguished itself with us this season, 
and under unfavorable circumstances. We 
have had a severe drought, no rain of any ac¬ 
count having fallen from the opening 
of spring until strawberries had ripen¬ 
ed, though at Rochester, twelve miles 
distant, there were several fine showers. One 
plot of about one-eighth of an acre of Jessie 
was dug over very early for plants, all plants 
being removed except that now and then one 
was left to restock the rows. This bed was 
far more fruitful than the beds dug over 
