No. 123. March 6, 1906. Nervous exhaustion and debility in breeding ewes. By R. A. Craig.

No. 124. March 10, 1906. Directions for testing the vitality of seed corn. By A. T. Wiancko.

No. 125. March 19, 1906. Treatment for oat smut. By J. C. Arthur.

No. 126. April 9, 1906. Treatment of lousy live stock. By R. A. Craig.

No. 127. April 14, 1906. Directions for grading seed corn and testing the planter. By A. T. Wiancko.

No. 128. April 21, 1906. Soy beans and cow peas. By A. T. Wiancko.

No. 129. May 16, 1906. Treatment of stomach worms of sheep. By R. A. Craig.

Changes in the Station Staff.

The following changes have occurred in the Station staff during the year covered by this report.

On July 6, 1905, G. I. Christie, a graduate of the Ontario and Iowa Agricultural Colleges, was appointed as Assistant Agriculturist. On September 1, W. A. Cochel, a graduate of the Missouri Agricultural College, was appointed Assistant in Animal Husbandry. On September 1, H. J. Fidler was appointed Assistant in the Dairy Department. On October 16, W. P. Kelley, a graduate of the Kentucky Agricultural College, was appointed Assistant in the Fertilizer Control Work. On October 1, Nola Sparks, Bookkeeper of the Station, resigned, and Jessie L. Cowing was appointed, October 25, to fill the vacancy. On November 3, Prof. H. E. Van Norman, head of the Dairy Department, resigned to accept a position of larger responsibility and higher remuneration, in the Pennsylvania State College, and December 1, Prof. O. F. Hunziker, a graduate of Cornell University, was chosen to fill the position made vacant by the resignation of Prof. VanNorman. On March 1, 1906, James Eldridge, Helper in the State Chemist Department, resigned to assume control of a large farm in the northern part of the State, John Wagner being appointed to fill the vacancy. On March 1, W. E. Osborn, working foreman in the Agricultural Department, resigned to take charge of a large dairy farm in the State, Harry Davis being appointed to fill the vacancy. On June 1, Walter Lane, in charge of the Station greenhouses, and foreman in the Horticultural Department, resigned on account of ill health. On June 15, L. S. Hasselman, a graduate of Purdue, was appointed Assistant Chemist. On June 18, C. O. Cromer, a Purdue graduate, was ap

pointed Assistant Agriculturist. On June 30, H. N. Slater, Dairy Field Assistant, resigned to accept a higher salaried position with the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

At the end of the year, Dr. A. W. Bitting severed his connection with the Station, as his medical practice and other duties demanded his entire time.

Adams Act.

Perhaps the most important event of the year in connection with Station affairs was the passage of the Adams bill by the U. S. Congress. By the terms of this act the income of the Station will ultimately be increased $15,000.00 per annum. The following is a full text of the Adams Act:

"An Act to Provide for an increased annual appropriation for agricultural experiment stations and regulating the expenditure thereof.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be, and hereby is, annually appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be paid as hereinafter provided, to each State and Territory, for the more complete endowment and maintenance of agricultural experiment stations now established or which may hereafter be established in accordance with the Act of Congress approved March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, the sum of five thousand dollars in addition to the sum named in said Act for the year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and six, and an annual increase of the amount of such appropriation thereafter for five years by an additional sum of two thousand dollars over the preceding year, and the annual amount to be paid thereafter to each State and Territory shall be thirty thousand dollars, to be applied only to paying the necessary expenses of conducting original researches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the United States, having due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the respective States and Territories.

SEC. 2. That the sums hereby appropriated to the States and Territories for the further endowment and support of agricultural experiment stations shall be annually paid in equal quarterly payments on the first day of January, April, July, and October of each year by the Secretary of the Treasury, upon the warrant of the Secretary of Agriculture, out of the Treasury of the United States, to the treasurer or other officer duly appointed by the governing boards of said experiment stations to receive the same, and such

officers shall be required to report to the Secretary of Agriculture on or before the first day of September of each year a detailed statement of the amount so received and of its disbursement, on schedules prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture. The grants of money authorized by this Act are made subject to legislative assent of the several States and Territories to the purpose of said grants: Provided, That payment of such installments of the appropriation herein made as shall become due to any State or Territory before the adjournment of the regular session of legislature meeting next after the passage of this Act shall be made upon the assent of the governor thereof, duly certified by the Secretary of the Treasury.

SEC. 3. That if any portion of the moneys received by the designated officer of any State or Territory for the further and more complete endowment, support, and maintenance of agricultural experiment stations as provided in this Act shall by any action or contingency be diminished or lost or be misapplied, it shall be replaced by said State or Territory to which it belongs, and until so replaced no subsequent appropriation shall be apportioned or paid to such State or Territory; and no portion of said moneys exceeding five per centum of each annual appropriation shall be applied, directly or indirectly, under any pretense whatever, to the purchase, erection, preservation, or repair of any building or buildings, or to the purchase or rental of land. It shall be the duty of each of said stations annually, on or before the first day of February, to make to the governor of the State or Territory in which it is located a full and detailed report of its operations, including a statement of receipts and expenditures, a copy of which report shall be sent to each of said stations, to the Secretary of Agriculture, and to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

SEC. 4. That on or before the first day of July in each year after the passage of this Act the Secretary of Agriculture shall ascertain and certify to the Secretary of the Treasury as to each State and Territory whether it is complying with the provisions of this Act and is entitled to receive its share of the annual appropriation for agricultural experiment stations under this Act and the amount which thereupon each is entitled, respectively, to receive. If the Secretary of Agriculture shall withhold a certificate from any State or Territory; and no portion of said moneys exceeding five per be reported to the President and the amount involved shall be kept separate in the Treasury until the close of the next Congress in order that the State or Territory may, if it shall so desire, appeal to Congress from the determination of the Secretary of Agriculture. If the next Congress shall not direct such sum to be paid, it shall be covered into the Treasury; and the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby charged with the proper administration of this law.

SEC. 5. That the Secretary of Agriculture shall make an annual report to Congress on the receipts and expenditures and work of the agricultural experiment stations in all of the States and Territories, and also whether the appropriation of any State or Territory has been withheld; and if so, the reason therefor.

SEC. 6. That Congress may at any time amend, suspend, or repeal any or all of the provisions of this Act.

Approved, March 16, 1906."

Owing to the fact that the Comptroller of the Treasury ruled that the first $5,000.00 of the Adams fund would not be available for the year ending June 30, 1906, and that the same was only made available by special act of Congress, during the latter part of the last week in June, the Indiana Station, as well as others, failed to get the benefit of the first year's appropriation. As we were, however, receiving for the first time the full amount of the State appropriation, this was a matter of less importance than would have been the case at any other time in the history of the Station.

As an illustration of the fact that important matters may soretimes hinge on small things a portion of the ruling of the Comptroller is quoted below:

"If a comma had separated the words "act" and "for," supra, Congress would have evidenced its intent to make the appropriation of $5,000.00 carried for the first year to each station applicable to the fiscal year 1906. But the comma is not there. Punctuation may be supplied to make an act intelligible and operative, but should not be supplied by construction when its effect would be to confuse and make a bill wholly or partially inoperative. Such would be the case if the comma were supplied in the language supra. I therefore answer your first question (as to whether the first $5,000.00 was available for the year ending June 30, 1906) in the negative."

As this ruling applied to all the states in the Union, it can be seen that the comma mentioned by the Comptroller was rather an expensive punctuation mark.

It will be noted by referring to the Adams act that the use of the funds provided is very much restricted. The Secretary of Agriculture who is charged with the administration of the fund has made the following ruling in regard to the things for which it may be used:

"The Adams fund is to be applied only to paying the necessary expenses of conducting original researches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the United States. It is for the more complete endowment and maintenance of the experiment stations, presupposing the provision of a working plant and administrative officers. Accordingly, expenses for administration,

care of buildings and grounds, insurance, office furniture, and fittings, general maintenance of the Station farm and animals, verification and demonstration experiments, compilations, farmers' stitute work, traveling, except as is immediately connected with original researches in progress under this act, and other general expenses for the maintenance of the experiment stations, are not to be charged to this fund. The act makes no provision for printing or for the distribution of publications, which should be charged to other funds."

From the above it will be seen that the use of the Adams fund is limited to research work only. This appropriation in no way relieves the state of the necessity of supporting the station, but on the other hand, increases its responsibility in this connection, as the necessary plant for carrying out the provisions of the Adams fund is supposed to be furnished by the state as well as all general expenses, including the publication of results. It is also to be noted that practically none of the soil improvement work, dairy work and live stock feeding work provided for under the recent state appropriation, and now being carried on, would be possible under the Adams act, as this work while equally important, is of a more popular character than the original research work contemplated under the Adams act.

By using the state appropriation largely for the purpose of conducting demonstration and cooperative experiments in different parts of the state and to project the scientific work done under the Hatch, Adams, and State funds, by means of lectures, institute work, corn train work, work in the creameries, etc., much better results should be secured from now on than have been possible under the financially restricted and unbalanced conditions existing in the past.

Advisory Committee.

The Advisory Committee from the State Corn Growers' Association, State Live Stock Association, and State Dairy Association, provided for in the law creating the recent State appropriation, met during the year, discussed the work in progress and contemplated under the Smith Act, and made many valuable suggestions in regard to the same. They also discussed future needs of the Station, and after carefully inspecting the building occupied at present, sent a communication to the Board of Trustees of the University, calling attention to the unsafe condition of the building, and to the fact that it is inadequate to the growing needs of the Station, and suggested the urgent necessity of Legislative action for the purpose of providing a new building.

The members of the Advisory Committee are in very close touch with both Station affairs and the farmers of the State, and