The Grenada sentinel., 1903-11-21
mississippi State News
Work at tho Experiment Stations.

Work at the Experiment Stations.
The greatest factors connected
with the Mississippi Agricultural
and Mechanical College for the i'm
proyement of the agricultural condi-
ton of the people are the govern
ment experiment station at the col
lege, and the branch experiment sta
ton at McNeill, supported by State
appropriation.
The government station was e.
tablished by congress in 1888, and
receives an annual appropriation Of
$4,000. 1t has been the means OF
the introduction of many varieties
of forage plants and Of the best
breeds of cattle. The many thou
sands of acres of vetch, mililotus,
alfalfa, and the clovers are due en-
tirely to the many valuable expert
ments made by this station. By
means of incubation, done at the
station free of cost to the farmer,
the finest cattle may now be brought
into the State from the best stock
districts above the quarantine line
with every assurance that the loss
will be less than two per cent,
whereas, without this incubation,
the loss would in almost every shi p
ment amount to more than eighty
per cent. The poor class of cattle
in the State today is due to the
great risk in bringing from above
the quarantine line the best cattle.
With the success of incubation es-
| tablished, more blooded cattle have
been brought into the State during
| the past five years than during the
previous quarter of century.
In addition to the work with
blooded cattle and forage plants,
much valuable work has been done
in soil analyses and investigation in
fertilizers, and in testing the best
varieties Of cotton, corn, peas, pota-
toes, strawberries, grapes, peaches,
apples, pecans, etc., the results of
which have been given to the farm
ers in bulletins numbering from one
to eighty.
The branch. experiment station
was established by the Legislature in
1900, and located at Mcneil, on
the New Orleans and Northeastern
railroad, in Pearl River county.
This pine woods section of the State
was for a long time looked upon as
almost entirely worthless, and only
in very recent years has its lands
brought anything like their true
value. The station owns two thou
sand acres Of cut-over pine land, bui
the principal work will be done on
one hundred and sixty acres front
ing one-half mile on the railroad
Work was not begun at Mcneil un.
til the 2lst of March, 1902, though
five acres had been cleared and TWEEN.
ty-fve fenced prior to this time By
the end of the year forty acres hac
been cleared Of trees and stumps
and about fifteen acres more hac
been practically gotten ready fo7
the plow. Two crops were gotter
off of every acre of this land: anc
during this year three crops have
been gotten from most of it. One
of the most difficult problems con
nected with this station has been thu
clearing of the land and the remov
ing of the stumps. Many method:
have been used by the director Of the
station, Mr.. E. B. Ferris, in remov
ing the stumps. Some have beer
blasted with dynamite, some have
been pulled with stump pullers
some have been dug, and still other
have been burned. A large part O.
the commercial fertilizers sold il
the State is used on lands within
the boundaries of the long leaf PIN
region. No systematic or exhaust
i've work has yet been done to stud.
the plant food requirements of thes
soils. One of the main efforts
therefore, of this station, will be t
study this question thoroughly, ant
determine, not only the most eco
nomical way to use fertilizers, bu
the value of leguminous crops AM
animal excrement both in the form
, of stable manure and the dropping
of animals on the soil. Their
are in operation at the station II
fertilizer tests; 358 variety tests; /
. tests with cotton and cow peas, va
rying the number of plants to tn
acre; :. 8 with cotton and corn, com
pairing different depths of prepara
tion and cultivation; 2 experiment
with cotton, showing different way
, of applying fertilizers in the drill
also rotations with cotton, corr
oats and COW peas, both with an
without fertilizers. There were i
June 38 different kinds OF crops