REPORT OF THE BOARD OF CONTROL. To the General Assembly: The Board of Control of THE CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION begs leave to present the following Report. The Experiment Station has been occupied during 1885 as in former years, mostly with the analysis of Commercial Fertilizers and Feeding Stuffs. The State "Law Concerning Fertilizers" in its 9th Section requires the Director of the Station to make and publish annually at least one analysis of each Commercial Fertilizer sold in Connecticut. This work has been going on throughout the entire year, and during the period from April to November has very fully employed the Station chemists. Its records show that the Station has tested 16 samples of seeds and made analyses of 256 fertilizers, 21 feeding stuffs, 14 soils, 2 samples of milk and several drinking waters. It has investigated two cases of suspected cattle poisoning, in one of which arsenic was found, and has published and distributed 4 printed Bulletins, each averaging 10 pages, in editions of 5,000 copies, and has issued 14 "weekly statements" printed by the hektograph process, and supplied to the Agricultural Press and to the Secretaries of Farmers' Club and Agricultural Societies. Much labor has been bestowed on "vegetation experiments" and on the solubility of the nitrogen of fertilizers. The new requirement that Reports to the General Assembly are to be prepared and printed by the first of November cannot for various reasons be carried out in respect to the details of this work, which properly constitute the Report of the Director of this Station. That Report in past years has been especially valuable to Farmers and Gardeners, because it has put in their possession a 8 CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. very accurate and complete account of the composition and relative values of all the commercial fertilizers and of most of the concentrated cattle foods found in our markets, so explained and tabulated as to make reference to them and their comparison instructive and easy. These analyses furnish a mass of data which, published in winter, has become indispensable to practical agriculturists in planning their operations for the coming summer, and it is of the highest importance to them that the information be as complete as possible and be brought down to the latest date. The Director cannot finish his Annual Report in a satisfactory manner until the work of nearly the entire calendar year is completed. To close the Station work early in October as would be necessary in order to make and print a Report by the first of November, would in our opinion seriously impair the practical usefulness of the Station. Futhermore the printing of the Director's Report is necessarily slow, great care and repeated proof-reading being required to insure correctness of the numerous tables of analyses which it contains. The Director's Report for 1885 is in preparation, but it cannot be ready for the printer until well into December, and the printing and proof-reading will require several weeks in addition. We therefore request that the printing of the Director's Report be authorized to proceed as in former years and that provision be made for the future to except it from the operation of the law requiring all Reports to be made and printed the first of November. The Director's Report hitherto has been mostly or entirely in type at the time designated in the Act establishing the Station for the regular Annual Meeting of this Board, viz : "on the third Tuesday in January of each year." We request that as long a time for presenting the Director's printed Report be permitted in future years. November, 1885. W. H. BREWER, HENRY B. HARRISON, Secretary. REPORT OF THE TREASURER. WM. H. BREWER, in account with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. December 1, 1884, to June 30, 1885. This report covers the seven months between the old and new fiscal years of the State. The receipts represent half of a year's annual appropriation and practically the analysis fees established by law for a whole year, nearly all falling due in the second quarter of the calendar year. WM. H. BREWER, Treasurer. |