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14 REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE 
New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
Upon assuming the directorship of this Station, it has occurred 
to me that there was a wide field for careful scientific investigation 
which could not but prove of immense practical value to the 
agricultural interests of the State, and especially to the dairy 
interest, which, I need not inform you, is of almost preéminent 
importance to our people. 
I beg leave to submit to your consideration the following points 
which have occurred to me, and shall be happy to receive from 
you any suggestions, by way of criticism, of the plan proposed, 
or of amplification of the details of the proposed inyestigation. 
I shall be pleased to have your suggestions as to how I may 
secure most economically, for the Station, the animals needed for 
the purpose of such investigation and experiments, and any 
information which shall tend to make the rep tiie of the highest 
value to the people of the State. 
1. Ata public institution, devoted to the adyiateoniete of agri- 
culture through experimentation, the stock should be represent- 
ative animals of the breed from which they are selected. 
9. The dairy interest in New York State being the most import- 
ant branch of the stock at it should be the first to receive 
attention. 
3. The average butter yield per cow, in this State, does not 
exceed 130 pounds per year, whereas it should not fall below 300 
pounds. This being true, the Station can do no better service for 
the dairymen of the State than to unite with them in working out 
the problem of feeding, individual variations and breed character- 
istics, with the allied subjects, which, when better understood and 
practiced, shall help to raise the standard and bring the yield up 
to double the present amount. 
4, The breeds which should first be selected are the Jersey, 
Holstein, Guernsey, Ayrshire, Shorthorns, Devon and one or two 
of the polled breeds. 
5. In building up a herd to be used in experimental work young 
animals should be selected, animals under one year, or, better, but 
afew months old. By having young animals, under like feeding, 
they can be grown to maturity, making the conditions for all the 
same, so that experiments with these animals would be much 
more valuable and conclusive than if their earlier feeding and 
environments had been widely different. 
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