a result of this work the number of trees required to be destroyed has been reduced to less than one-half of one per cent. The trees found to be infected with the disease are marked by the inspector and written notice is given to the owner to remove the trees and destroy them within the time mentioned in the notice. This is necessary in order to prevent the spread of the disease to nearby trees in that orchard or on adjacent land With rare exceptions this Station has had the hearty co-operation of the citizens and peach growers in carrying out this work.

While there has been marked improvements in the proper selection of soils and varieties of fruits and in the packing of fruits for the market there is much yet to be done in order to bring the packing and marketing of fruit and vegetables up to the proper standard. In most of the counties there is no organized plan among the growers as to the manner of packing and marketing their products and in none of them asyet have the practices been brought up to the highest standard. The State can and I believe should continue to aid in every possible way in promoting and protecting these industries.

In this connection a number of co-operative experiments with fertilizers, leguminous crops, tests of the mulching method have been carried on with a number of garden and orchard owners at a number of points in the State. This work is progressing but in some instances has not been carried on sufficiently to justify a final report in the form of a bulletin but it is expected that it will all be worked out and reports will be published in bulletin form by the Station from time to time within the next two years, and incorporated as a part of the biennial report at the end of that time. There is much important work which should be carried on vigorously for bringing the diseases which are so destructive to the potato industry under control, and this the Station has under way at this time and has the work well in hand. The most destructive of the enemies of the potato is the blight which probably reduces the yield of potatoes any where from one to fifty per cent, and more than is caused by all other diseases combined. It is a controllable disease and thorough and efficient spraying is what is necessary to keep it in check. Already a number of the best growers in the State have acquired the proper equipment, have learned the materials to be used and the method of application and are doing good work.

Some outlay from these funds have been made in promoting two apple carnivals which were held at Martinsburg, a peach show at Keyser, a fruit show in Monongalia County and two fruit exhibits which were collected and maintained as a part of the Wheeling and Parkersburg fairs which were held during September. The carnivals which have been conducted at Martinsburg two years have been a great success and have been immensely valuable in a number of ways in demonstrating to our own people and advertising among people of other States the superior fruit which we produce in West Virginia. The growers in that region deserve the success which they have attained and have set an example which it is believed will be emulated all over the State. The exhibit made at the Wheeling and Parkersburg fairs although limited in some respects on ac

count of the small amount of money that it was thought wise to invest in it was very excellent indeed and was visited by thousands of people who manifested the greatest interest in the subject and many favorable comments were made on the undertaking. These exhibits were collected and shown under the auspices of the State Horticultural Society under the management of Prof. A. L. Dacy, of the Experiment Station, who is secretary of that Society, and the undertaking was financed by the Experiment Station.

May I suggest that the State could well afford to expend a few thousand dollars each year in promoting the collection and installation of exhibits of fruits and other agricultural products at different fairs throughout the State, coupling the exhibits with appropriate lectures, publications and personal conferences with visitors concerning the subjects. I doubt if a better way can be found for reaching so many in an instructive and useful way for the promotion and development of the agricultural industries of the State.

In order that a spraying mixture which is used for control of insects and diseases successfully performs the purpose for which it is used and at the same time work no injury to the fruit and plants to which it is applied it is absolutely necessary that the materials used should be standard in quality and condition. In order to aid in this, much work has been done in the chemical laboratories of the Station in making analysis and tests of samples of the material, such as arsenate of lead, lime sulphur mixtures, lime sulphur and various oil emulsions, etc.

Much valuable work has also been done in the laboratories in the testing of soils for fruit growers and gardners and in prescribing plans for management of the soils so as to get the best results.

Several co-operative orchards have been started for the purpose of determining a number of questions involved in the industry, such as the adaptability of varieties to certain sectious and making comparison of the economic value of cultivation in comparison with the mulching system and to test the value of different legumes or cover crops and to determine what number of trees is most profitable to be planted to the acre. It is the popular belief that peach trees cannot be grown continuously and profitably on the same land, the idea being that a single crop of peach trees would so exhaust the fruit producing qualities in the soil as to make it unprofitable to attempt the growing of the second peach orchard on the same land. This experiment is being carried on in Hampshire County in the abandoned orchard which was the first commercial orchard planted by the Allegheny Orchard Company, who are pioneers in the commercial growing of that fruit in West Virginia. Of course such an experiment as this cannot be completed in a shorter period than ten years. We are confident that it can be demonstrated that the soils can be so managed as to maintain a continuous supply of every thing necessary to the profitable growing of peaches for a very long time on the same land. If this is proven it will be worth more to Hampshire County alone than many times the whole appropriation which has been made thus far for this sort of work, and such work as this should not be abandoned for the

want of a little money. It must not be understood that such an undertaking as this is a simple or easy one. As a matter of fact peach lands have been abandoned for that purpose after one orchard is grown as a practice almost every where, but the relative value of lands in West Virginia found suitable for the purpose, for peach growing in comparison to any other things that can be produced on the same land is so much greater for the peaches as to justify any reasonable effort or outlay in an effort to work out successfully what we have undertaken.

Another experiment which has been under way here in carrying out the wishes of the Legislature is an effort which we have been making to grow mushrooms in a worked out coal mine on the Experiment Farm. This is a novel undertaking and might at first seem trifling, but if the great success which we have had during the past season can be successfully duplicated in other mines there is no reason why there should not be established an immense industry and bring into very profitable use acres of worked out mines all over the State. The fact that 4627 pounds of delicious edible mushrooms can be produced in a single season from one planting on six and twenty square feet shows conclusively that they would be a very profitable thing to grow, and I wish to call your attention especially to a more detailed statement concerning this investigation which is a part of this report.

One of the apropriations made by the last Legislature was a small sum to be used by the Experiment Station for the promotion of horticulture and trucking. Before beginning any systematic efforts for the purpose of stimulating increased production I thought it was best to ascertain as far as possible what the market demands in our own State were for such crops as have been successfully grown in the State. Unfortunately there had been no statistical information bearing upon this subject collected and published. A printed schedule, showing a list of eighty-two agricultural products or biproducts, was prepared. Several active agents were sent out from the Station with instructions to visit mill men, jobbers, cold storage managers and wholesale men and make request for the information covering the years ending October 1, 1908 and 1909. The limited facilities for doing the work made it impossible to get absolutely complete returns. The object of this inquiry primarily was to find out what products, such as we can grow in West Virginia, are demanded by our own markets, how much of these products are demanded and where the markets are. The information gathered covers seventy-five towns and cities and is fairly complete for the large mill men, jobbers and wholesale men except for meat products. It does not include such products as have been shipped into the State direct by many of the mining, manufacturing and lumbering enterprises of the State nor any of such products which have been imported by retail merchants and individuals and many of the smaller produce agents who buy direct from markets outside of the State, nor does it include that very large amount of agricultural products which are constantly being shipped into the State along its borders by dairymen, fruit growers, truckers and farmers who deliver by wagon, etc. An 00

casional visit to the ferries at Huntington and Parkersburg during the marketing seasons would throw a great deal of light on this subject. The manner in which the meats are supplied to the markets in this State are such that practically no information was included in this schedule. I am confident that for each of the years that the amount of agricultural products brought in as above indicated but not included in the statement may De very conservatively estimated as fully one-third of the amount shown lelow. A summarized statement for each of the two years following, with the added estimate of one-third, shows, for the year ending October 1st, 1908, $31,479,728, and for the year ending October 1st, 1909, $36,698,092.