Report of the

STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. For the biennial period ending November 30, 1920.

A report of the Station work for the biennial period ending September 30, 1919, has already been published in the Report of the Station. Since that report was issued no new projects have been undertaken, because of the straitened financial condition of the Station.

The projects which had been previously undertaken, however, have been actively carried on and are yielding satisfactory results.

In the work on contagious abortion, the study of possible infection through the food has been nearly finished and the other channels of infection are now being experimentally studied.

The studies of control of black-head of turkeys have indicated considerable success, a flock of 200 birds being grown to maturity.

The major project of the poultry department is on the inheritance of fecundity in hens.

The data collected in the last nine years in connection with the egglaying contest are now being statistically analyzed by arrangement with the Institution for Experimental Evolution at Cold Spring Harbor, New York.

A determination of the normal growth curves of Barred Rocks and White Wyandottes is in progress.

During the last year the Station poultry flock has been moved to new and more commodious quarters, which will make the experimental work much more satisfactory.

Besides the study of contagious abortion noted above, in which the dairy department cooperates with the bacteriologist, the department is undertaking a test of the feeding value of ensilage from three kinds of corn, an early, a medium and a late maturing variety. This will include a study of all costs involved in growing and preparing crops, as well as of their efficiency in milk production. Three experimental silos have been erected and filled with the silage to be tested.

A study is also being made of methods of fermenting milk with the Bacillus acidophilus, which may be practicable for commercial plants. The product may be used as a beverage, like butter milk, and has also been shown to have therapeutic value.

The testing of small grains, the study of the value of soy beans grown with corn for silage, and the experiments on the fertilizer requirements of potatoes, which have been carried on for some years are now yielding results of great practical value.

A bulletin on fertilizers for potatoes has recently been published. Strain tests and degeneration studies with potatoes, culture trials with alfalfa, studies of dairy farm rotations and an investigation of the availability of soil potash are now being carried on.

A study of the place in rotation for applications of manure, the reinforcement of manure with phosphates for corn, oats, and hay, and an extensive experiment on pasture improvement are newer undertakings. The results of the work of the Zoology Department on the individuality of the hen in relation to incubation have been published in bulletin form.

In a flock of 64 ewes and lambs the effects of the stomach worm have been studied as shown by weight, effects on the blood and by mortality.

It has been determined that the immature worm can survive the winter in Connecticut pastures.

Various control measures are being tested on different groups of these sheep.

The above presents only an outline of the principal projects included in the Station work of the last two years. Space forbids any detailed discussion of them or of their practical results and value to the farmers of the state.

Respectfully submitted,

E. H. JENKINS,

Director.

Part II.

INTRODUCTORY.

The Trustees of the Connecticut Agricultural College appreciating that the demands for service on the institution were becoming greater and more varied each year, and that there was a limit to the possibilities of meeting the legitimate requests, by formal vote last spring, invited nearly one hundred citizens of the state to make a careful study of the college. They were informed that they would be asked to make an investigation of the college in all its aspects, its work, its policy, its needs, its equipment, and that this would involve more than a passing glimpse such as could be gained in one day.

Except for eight women, selected because they represented various significant local organizations, the delegates invited to take part in the Pilgrimage were appointed by different state-wide institutions as follows:

More than sixty of those invited to attend came to the college on the last Wednesday in May at their own expense and spent the day in organizing for the study, in inspecting departments and in preliminary committee work. It is significant that of the nearly one hundred persons invited not one refused to serve though many were unable to attend the first meeting.

At this first gathering of the Pilgrimage, fourteen departmental committees were organized and each was requested to prepare a report for the Executive Committee of the Pilgrimage; the Executive Committee was requested to summarize these several reports for presentation to the Trustees.

The several committees, of seven each, were appointed as follows: Administration and Library.

Agronomy and Agricultural Engineering.

Animal Husbandry and Farm.

Dairy.

Experiment Station.

Extension Service.

Farm Management and Agricultural Economics.

Home Economics.

Horticulture, Forestry, Vegetable Gardening, Landscape, Apiculture. Mechanical Engineering.

Academic Studies.

Poultry.

Science.

Student Activities and Accommodations.
Executive.

Each committee was informed that every aid would be given it in its work, and that "no doors would be shut." For their guidance a brief summary of the work of the college was prepared for the use of all. In addition a special summary of the departments involved was prepared for each committee and a faculty consultant appointed to serve each committee in any way possible.

The several committees organized promptly and many began their work at once. Many committees have made repeated visits to the college to carry on their work. The service that these committees have rendered has been very great and the spirit with which they took up their work has been most inspiring to all concerned. Their reports have proved so helpful and suggestive that they are printed herewith together with the materials prepared for the several committees as a background for their studies. These appear in the following order: A brief summary of the college-the Task in Brief. Special reports for the several committees.

Reports by the Pilgrimage Departmental Committees.
Report of the Executive Committee.

THE TASK IN BRIEF.

The Connecticut Agricultural College, as the Land Grant College of the state receives federal appropriations in addition to state support. By state law it must offer courses for men and women, and because of federal support, it must give work in Mechanical Engineering as well as Agriculture and Home Economics. Under the Congressional SmithLever Act it must maintain a division of Extension Teaching in order that the state may avail itself of Federal Smith-Lever funds for such work. It has also been designated by the State Legislature, under the Congressional Smith-Hughes Act, as the state institution for training teachers of agriculture and home economics.

It is therefore under obligations to train farmers and workers in the field of agriculture, to give an adequate course in Mechanical Arts that will prepare students for more advanced work in technical institutions, and, in addition to training women as teachers of home economics, must give them as adeque a training for farm home life as is given to young men, for the future development of rural life in Connecticut depends not only on a successful agriculture, but on the maintenance of a satisfied and prosperous rural people. To this end the College has contributed its best, and the large proportion of its students (63 per cent.) now engaged in agricultural pursuits is a witness to its success. But new times have brought new demands far beyond the ability of the college, and this is true in each of the three divisions of the college; Instruction, Experiment Station and Extension Service.

INSTRUCTION DIVISION

In the instruction division, the facilities of class rooms and laboratories are so taxed that the efficiency of the teaching is greatly weakened.

Accommodations intended for a maximum enrollment of one hundred students are but a makeshift when three hundred have to be taught and permits no further expansion in enrollment. The necessary development of new subjects to keep the offerings anywhere near to meeting the advancing demands of agricultural instruction has meant new instructors and new courses of instruction. This has made it impossible to maintain adequate offerings in the fundamental academic subjects, without a working knowledge of which no man or woman is trained for life work. Owing to lack of funds the resources of the library cannot keep up with the requirements for books of reference, technical reference volumes for student use, technical periodicals, to say nothing of the inadequate facilities of the library rooms.

The deficiencies in laboratories, laboratory equipment, class room accommodations and library facilities are more than matched by the inadequate living accommodations for students and unmarried instructors. Owing to the loss of Grove Cottage by fire in 1919, not only the dormitory accommodations for young women were seriously curtailed but laboratories and equipment for home economics were lost. Since that time the women students have been housed in two old buildings and very uncomfortably. Temporary accommodations for class and laboratory work have been improvised in other buildings, sorely needed for the purpose for which they were built.

The cooking classes for instance have been held in the Poultry Building, a half mile from the dormitories. The dormitories for boys are housing double the number of students for which they were intended. Four boys in a room intended for two is more than a matter of physical discomfort. It makes it difficult for the students to study with the concentration they should and deprives the young men of one of the greatest benefits that comes from college life-that of living with a chum for four years.