REPORT OF THE TREASURER. ANNUAL REPORT OF FRED C. KENNEY, TREASURER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICUL TURAL COLLEGE, For the Year ending June 30, 1908. The United States Appropriations, 1907-08. Hatch Fund. Adams Fund. Dr. To receipts from the treasurer of the United fund), and March 16, 1906 (Adams fund), $15,000 00 Cr. By salaries, labor, publications, $9,000 00 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURIST. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. WM. P. BROOKS, AGRICULTURIST; E. S. FULTON, E. F. GASKILL, ASSISTANTS. The work of the department of agriculture during the past year has followed the usual lines. These it will be remembered have for their principal object throwing light upon what appear to be some of the more important problems connected with the selection and method of use and application of manures and fertilizers. Much attention has been paid also to experiments designed to show the relative efficiency as sources of nitrogen and phosphoric acid of different materials which may be purchased by the farmer as sources of these elements. The number of plots used in connection with our field work during the past year was 313. The work in the vegetation house involved the use of 384 pots. The crops used in the crop experiments in the vegetation house were Japanese millet, dwarf Essex rape, the soy bean, tobacco and tomato. The experiments with the two latter crops were carried out in the hope of throwing light on the causes of diseases or physiological troubles affecting these crops. The results are not yet conclusive. In addition to the work in the field plots and in the vegetation house we have carried on experiments in 136 closed plots. These have been for the most part used in fertilizer experiments. The results serve as a valuable check on field work. The number of letters of inquiry answered in the department during the past year has been greater than ever before. The total is rather over 1,200, as against 824 for the year 1907. The pressure for space from the other departments in the experiment station is so great that no attempt will be made 1 I to present detailed reports of the different experiments in the department of agriculture. As soon as opportunity and means permit, the different lines of investigation will be taken up one by one and reported in full. Some of the more important results of the experiments which have been carried on during the past year may be briefly stated as follows: I. The experiment on Field A, which has for its object to determine the relative value, as sources of nitrogen, of barnyard manure, nitrate of soda, sulfate of ammonia and dried blood, has been continued. This experiment was begun in 1890. The crop of this year was alsike clover, which, however, was considerably mixed with grass that came into the different plots. The nitrogen fertilizer giving the highest yield this year was dried blood, closely followed by nitrate of soda. Representing the yield of the latter by 100, the relative standing of the different materials used as sources of nitrogen, as compared with the plots receiving no nitrogen, as indicated by the total yields, were as follows: The relative increase produced by the different nitrogen fertilizers, as compared with the no-nitrogen plots for the nineteen years during which the experiment has continued, is represented by the following figures: These figures make it apparent that the nitrate of soda has on the average given a much greater increase in crop than either of the other materials used as a source of nitrogen. Since a pound of nitrogen usually sells at a lower price in nitrate of soda than in either of the others, the wisdom of making a large use of this material as a source of nitrogen is apparent. II. On the field where different potash salts have been under comparison for so many years the crops this year have been sweet corn and early cabbages. The former on two series of plots, the latter on three. Last year the entire field was in potatoes, and the results showed a marked dependence of the potato crop on this soil on a liberal supply of potash, the average yield of the plots to which potash was applied exceeding that on the no-potash plots by 36.96 per cent. During the past year the fields both of sweet corn and cabbages have been remarkably even, and the most striking result of the experiment is that the yield both in the case of sweet corn and cabbages is about the same on the plots to which no potash has been applied for eleven years as on any of the potash plots. The difference in favor of the potash plots has been for the corn 2.7 per cent; for the cabbages the no-potash plots average 6.33 per cent better than those receiving potash. The yield of the corn on the nopotash plots was at the rate of 48.57 bushels per acre. The yield of the early cabbages on the no-potash plots was 48,213 pounds per acre. III. The corn crop on the field where special corn fertilizer is under comparison with a mixture richer in potash was unusually good on both fertilizer combinations. On the special corn fertilizer it was at the rate of 94 bushels of sound corn and 7,760 pounds of stover per acre. On the fertilizer richer in potash it was at the rate of 90.23 bushels of sound corn and 9,224 pounds of stover per acre. This experiment has now been continued for eighteen years. Incidentally it furnishes a very conclusive answer to the question as to whether corn can be profitably raised on fertilizers. The cost of fertilizers applied to this field, where corn and mixed grass and clover hay have alternated, each being grown for two successive years, has varied in different years from about $12 to $16 per acre. There has not been a single unprofitable crop, and the crop of the last season is the heaviest so far secured. IV. The crop of corn produced on the south corn acre, where manure alone is under comparison with a small quantity of manure and a potash salt, was also exceptionally heavy. On the manure alone (6 cords) the rate per acre amounted to 90.43 bushels of hard grain and 8,800 pounds of stover per acre. |