REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. XIII 
Several lines of investigation are, however, under way and we 
have hopes that our work in horticulture will in time be recog- 
nized as ranking with the work done in dairying and in poultry 
husbandry. 
FIELD EXPERIMENTS. 
The station is seriously handicapped in conducting field 
experiments from the fact that no land is owned by the 
college which is well adapted to field experiment work. Our 
fields are for the most part hilly and the soil is entirely lacking 
in uniformity. Field experiment work does not mix well with 
the regular farm work. Inasmuch as the college farm is lim- 
ited in area and the fields which can be tilled are still further 
limited in area, we have not at the present time any land suit- 
able for experiment work. Some means should be taken to 
secure for the experiment station some land adapted to exper- 
iment work. 
LECTURES AT FARMERS’ INSTITUTES AND OTHER 
MEETINGS. 
The demand upon various members of the station staff for 
addresses at farmers’ institutes, and for various meetings 
throughout this and other statés has become so great as to 
at times seriously interfere with station duties. While a cer- 
tain amount of this work is valuable and keeps the men in 
touch with the farming interests of the state, yet when these 
demands become so great that the men are called from their 
duties for several days during the week and for several weeks 
in succession the matter becomes so serious that it should re- 
ceive attention. If every call for institute work must be met 
and these calls are as frequent as they have been during the 
past year, then it will be necessary to secure for the various 
departments able assistants who can carry on the work of the 
experiment station so that the work will not be interfered 
with. It may frequently happen that absence from duties for 
a single day may result in sacrificing the work which has been 
conducted through the entire year. The details of experiment 
work must be looked after every day if the experiment is to 
amount to anything. These details cannot properly be looked 
after except by some one who is in close touch with the work. 
