I recommend:

1st. That the Director be relieved of at least a large share of the extra duties that have been saddled upon him, and which have no legitimate connection with the Station work.

2d. That the work of the Agriculture College be more fully separated from the work of the Agricultural Experiment Station, as I believe it to be contemplated in the law.

3d. That the present general policy of conducting the work of the Experiment Station be continued. The greatest need of the Experiment Station is to be let alone, not only in this State, but in most others in this country.

4th. That the work of the Professor of Agriculture be separated from that of Horticulture, and a competent man put in charge of the work of instruction in the Agricultural College, to act as its Dean, to live upon the farm and take charge of all the work upon the farm, except the purely experimental work of the several departments. That is all that one man should be expected to do.

5th. That with the recent State appropriation, the buildings at the farm be modified for experimental feeding and dairying purposes, and that suitable live stock for educational purposes be purchased.

6th. That as far as the resources of the Board will justify, the agricultural education of the farmers be continued as in the past, by members of the Station Staff assisting at farmer's institutes, so far as it will not seriously interfere with the regular work.

7th. That additional land be purchased at the earliest possible date, if it is the desire of the Board to conduct experiments in the live stock industry. For this purpose there are two farms adjoining the college farm, either of which would answer the purpose nicely and either can be had at less than their real value.

REPORT OF

AGRICULTURIST AND HORTICULTURIST,

FOR YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1897.

TO DR. JOHN A. MYERS, DIRECTOR,

West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station:

DEAR SIR-I have the honor to present for your considertion, a report of the work accomplished, as well as an outline of the work now in progress, in the Department of Agriculture and Horticulture in the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station.

Since assuming, in October, 1895, the duties devolving upon the head of this Department, the work has been more than doubled, by reason of the expansion made possible through the purchase of a farm. The addition to the land area of the Experiment Station has permitted of extensive tests of cultural methods and practices for restoring and improving a run-down farm. Last year, owing to the fact that the farm did not come under the control of the University authorities until April 1st, a small tract only was brought under the plow. A limited area was devoted to oats-fertilizer tests being the object in view. About 8 acres was in corn, some five varieties being tested. Nearly one acre was in potatoes, comprising 198 varieties, of which the yield and general characteristics have been noted and tabulated for bulletin use. This season the potato variety test is being repeated and cultural tests to determine method and time of cultivation; the influence of different fertilizers and of various hygroscopic salts during seasons of drouth, is under way, both on potatoes and corn.

Wheat. Eight plats of wheat of fall of 1896, the object being to

acre each were sown in the test the influence of various

times and methods of applying commercial fertilizers to get best results. Accordingly, fertilizers were sown with the grain, drilled in before the grain, sown broadcast after the grain in the fall, and broadcast upon the plat in the Spring. In all cases, the exact weight of fertilizer used, the date and method of application, are all recorded in the record book of the department. These books, by the way, are my own design, and formed the subject of a paper presented at the last annual meeting of the American Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations held in Washington, D. C., in November last.

Oats. Beside the general field crop, consisting of some 8 or 9 acres which has been treated with the several potash salts, Thomas slag, and ammoniated superphosphate, plot experiments are under way to determine best depth of planting, quantity of seed per acre, time of sowing, as well as a duplication of the fertilizer test upon wheat and a test of some five new varieties.

Corn. In addition to the general field crop, consisting of between 7 and 8 acres, we have plat tests to determine the effect of different modes of culture, deep and shallow, with different implements, as compared with a mulch and no culture. The fertilizer test already referred to in speaking of potatoes, is duplicated upon the corn.

This line of investigation will be carried on through a series of years, because of the great importance which an adequate water supply plays in the yield of all cereal grains, and since, by methods of culture, it is believed that much can be done to husband the natural water supply during times of drouth.

Forage Crops. The attention of the farmers of the State is rapidly being drawn to dairying. The grazing of mutton and wool sheep will receive during the next four or five years, more thought than at any time in the past decade. We have, therefore, under test, some 26 different forage crops more or less new to this State. Beside these annual forage crops, some 20 plats of grasses of various sorts are now under comparison. These lines of work, in order that the greatest good shall result from

them, must be carried on for a series of years. Seasons are so variable that the result of a single test with field crops is seldom safe for a general guide. In addition to the above, a study of various methods of seeding with timothy and clover is under way, seed sown with and without a nursecrop, broadcast and in drills, to determine its behavior under various conditions.

LIVE STOCK.

Pigs. A feeding test with pigs, from date of birth to time of marketing, is now under way. The pigs were weighed at birth and have been weighed every week since. A well bal anced ration for young animals is being fed them, and the quanity and cost of all the food consumed is being accounted for.

At the opening of the winter feeding period, a feeding test with store sheep is being arranged for; besides this, it is proposed to purchase not more than ten or fifteen good grade breeding ewes, as the foundation of a small flock from which to breed up a mutton strain of sheep. The present development in the sheep industry, it seems to me, is along the line of mutton rather than wool production, and I desire to take an average of the ewes of the State, as a foundation, and from them as a nucleus breed up a good mutton type of sheep, thus showing in a practical way, how every sheep owner can modify his flock to suit the demands of the market without incurring any great

expense.

HORTICULTURE.

In the horticultural division of the work of the Experiment Station, reports have already been published upon general vegetable tests, on potato tests, and scab treatment, and upon the preparation and application of insecticides and fungicides. Reports are now in the hands of the printer, relating to extended work in the propagation of plants from cuttings, studies of the apple industry in the northern panhandle, studies of the methods of the raspberry growers of Western New York, for the purpose of introducing the industry into West Virginia, descripsion of a new auxanometer, together with a list of the

donations of the department during the year. A bulletin on general vegetables, one on strawberries, and material is prepared for a bulletin on stock feeding, and another on potatoes. It is desirable if practicle, to publish the work on stock feeding, but the potato report I prefer to reserve until the work of the present year shall be completed.

In horticulture, the opportunities for work have been better. than along agriculture lines, owing to the fact that the experimental work has been longer organized and the facilities more completely developed. The garden area is in a high state of cultivation, but owing to its peculiar location, it is difficult to work because of the great amount of seepage water, due to the outcropping rock strata immediately above it. More thorough under draining will overcome a part of this difficulty, and by ridge culture in the fall, it is believed that still more can be accomplished towards making it earlier.

Work done. In the greenhouses, a series of tests with artificial lights were begun in the winter of 1895-6, and have been continued through the winter of 1896-97, the object of these tests being to bring more accurate knowledge out of the problem of the effect of artificial light upon plant growth.

The work taken up here differs from that done at any other laboratory in the world, in that the light used by us is the incandescent gas light formed by the use of the Welsbach burner. In all other work with artificial light, with which I am familar, either oil or electricity has been the source of the illumination. Oil was found to produce a light of indifferent effect upon plant growth, but both the arc and incandescent electric light have proven not only to have a decided influence upon plant growth, but to be of commercial value, some of the extensive lettuce growers near Boston having made successful, practical use of it in hastening their crops. Owing to the lesser cost of the gas light in this region, if it can be made as useful as electricity, and our results are confirming the idea that it can, two important results follow-the first, the fact that light other than that of the sun or electricity does influence plant growth;