REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON EXPERIMENTS AND [Read and accepted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 9, 1906.] The State Board of Agriculture may be considered a kind of board of trade for the farmer, and the experiment station a clearing house for correcting errors in theory or practice. Farming in Massachusetts is of necessity confined chiefly to the dairy, poultry, the orchard, and the market garden in its broadest application, including plants and flowers. It must therefore be a benefit to visit the station, where the busy professors are doing important work for the farmer, showing him by their scientific investigations what to avoid and what to adopt, without the expense of personal tests. With the demands made upon the farmer in the production of pure milk, by the requirements of the State Board of Health and city boards, exacting improved stables, clean milk cans, clean clothing, clean hands properly manicured, the consumer should in return demand justice for the farmer, in that he should be entitled to a higher price for all this extraordinary care, instead of giving the benefit to the middle man. The entomological department is in excellent condition, with greatly improved facilities, more room having been added for students and more for experimental work under glass. The botanical department is doing valuable work in its experiments in greenhouse cultures; with the increasing amount of market gardening many products are grown under glass, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, etc. In the horticultural department the professor has devised an excellent system of judging fruits by points, which has, we think, been adopted by the American Pomological Society. He has also plans for the improvement of the package for shipping fruit for the best markets; but it is essential first to produce fruit worthy to be shown in the improved package; this needed improvement is a subject well worthy the attention of this Board. " In the agricultural department, the questions affecting the selection and use of manures and fertilizers" occupy much attention, and the final results will be watched with interest. It has been said that the work of the station has been directed to the scientific rather than to the practical side of farming, and this may, in a measure, be true; but by summing up the work of these various departments we realize the great value of the experiment station. If any department should be engaged in special investigation, would it not be well for the professor in charge to present a report to the Board of Agriculture at its annual winter meeting, so that all interested may receive the benefit and have an opportunity of asking questions? Respectfully submitted, WM. H. SPOONER, Chairman. REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON INSTITUTES AND PUBLIC MEETINGS. [Read and accepted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 9, 1906.] The institute meetings are every year becoming more interesting and instructive. As new and improved methods of feeding animals and plants are discovered, a broader field for lecturers to work is opened, making their work not only more interesting, but of greater value. Employing competent persons to lecture in different parts of the State gives the farmers an opportunity to listen to new and improved methods of conducting the farm, methods which decrease the cost of producing the crops, and at the same time increase their value. The summer meeting of the Board was held at Lowell, and was well attended by the members and people living in that section of the State. The winter meeting was held at Worcester; it was well attended by members of the Board and others. The lectures were both interesting and instructive. They stated many facts which should enable the farmers to get a better understanding of how to produce crops of a better quality at a smaller cost, consequently bringing them a much greater profit. Respectfully submitted, EDMUND HERSEY, Chairman. REPORT TO THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, ACTING AS OVERSEERS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. [Revised Laws, chapter 89, section 10, adopted by the Board, Jan. 9, 1906.] To the State Board of Agriculture, Overseers of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. At the beginning of the present college year the number of students, 210, the greatest number ever enrolled for the regular course, proves that there is an increased interest of our people in our excellent Agricultural College. There has also been a steady gain of those who take the short or winter course, many of those being not boys but men, who feel that the present age demands that they fit themselves especially in the line of work they would pursue. At commencement in June the Grinnell prizes were awarded to Bertram Tupper of Barre and to Harold Foss Thompson of Jamaica Plain. The college has suffered a great loss in the death of its loved and honored president, Dr. H. H. Goodell. The taking of one who as instructor and president had spent nearly all of his life in work for the institution makes a gap not easily filled. We commend the action of the trustees in their careful deliberation before electing his successor. At our October visit we found the farm had yielded returns fully up to the average. We suggest it might be well to plant some portion to flint corn, and not depend upon a dent variety for the entire crop. The dairy herd was the best we have ever seen at the farm, and one that any similar institution might well be proud of. We greatly regret that the loss of the barn by fire so shortly after necessitated the sale of the greater portion of this herd. Wilder Hall, the new brick building for use of the horticultural department, is now nearly completed. This will relieve the congested condition of the class room in the Botanic Museum, also furnish more suitable accommodations for those now obliged to use a portion of the vegetable house. That the present Legislature will grant at an early date an ample appropriation for a new barn, ice house and dairy room, to replace those destroyed by the November fire, is the earnest hope of all those interested in the college as well as those connected with it. The botanical department is greatly in need of new buildings both for its class room and laboratory work, and for a glass house, where the students may get an insight into commercial vegetable growing under glass. We believe the increasing number of students indicates that our citizens are becoming more fully awake to the opportunities offered for obtaining a good education at this institution. Therefore, let the Commonwealth provide for the needed buildings and the equipment of the same; when, under the wise direction of the newly elected president, Kenyon L. Butterfield, we predict a brilliant future for the college. Respectfully submitted, JOHN BURSLEY. A. H. NYE. |