ALABAMA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
Auburn, Ala., Dec. 7, 1923
Gov W. W. Brandon,..
State Capitol Building,
Montgomery, Alabama.
Dear Sir:
In accordance with an Act of Congress, approved March 21,.
1887, establishing Agricultural Experiment Stations and an
Act of Congress approved March 16, 1906, known as the Adams.
Act, I herewith transmit to you the Thirty-fourth Annual Re-
port of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the Alabama
Polytechnic Institute.
Respectfully,
SPRIGHT DOWELL,
PresidenLt.
Auburn, Ala., Sept. 1, 1923.
President Spright Dowell,
Auburn, Alabama.
Dear Dr. Dowell:
I am handing youherewith the 34th Annual Report of the
Alabama Experiment Station, Alabama Polytechnic Institute,
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1923.
Yours very truly,
DAN T. GRAY,
Dean and Director.
TRUSTEES
His Excellency, William W. Brandon, President --- Ex-Officio
J. W. Abercrombie, Superintendent of Education -Ex-Officio
TERM EXPIRES 1927
C. S. McDowell, Jr., Third District_---------------Eufaula
Victor Hanson, Ninth District_------------Birmingham
W. H. Oats, First District--------------------------Mobile
T. D. Samford, Third District--------------------Opelika
P. S. Haley, Tenth District-Oakman
TERM EXPIRES 1931
IH. D. Merrill, Fourth District--------------------Anniston
Harry Herzfeld, Fifth District---------------Alexander City
Oliver R. Hood, Seventh District------------------Gadsden
TERM EXPIRES 1935
Charles Henderson, Second District-._-....-:-Troy
J. A. Rogers, Sixth District-........-Gainesville
C. M. Sherrod, Eighth District-------------------Courtland
EXPERIMENT STATION STAFF
SPRIGHT DOWELL, A. M., 
LL. D., President
DAN T. GRAY, A. B., M. S., Director 
of Experiment Station
J. P. BELL, Secretary
AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY
J. F. Duggar, M. S., Agricultural Economist
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING
M. L. Nichols, M. S., Agricultural Engineer
J. W. Randolph, B. S., Assistant Agricultural Engineer
E. C. Easter, B. S., Assistant Agricultural Engineer
AGRONOMY
M. J. Funchess, M. S., Agronomist
F. W. Parker, Ph. D., Soils Chemist
J. T. Williamson, B. S., Associate Agronomist
H. B. Tisdale, B. S., Associate Plant Breeder
H. B. Helms, B. S., Assistant in Agronomy
W. H. Appleton,- B. S., Assistant in Agronomy
ANIMAL INDUSTRY
J. C. Grimes, M. S., Animal Husbandman
W. H. Eaton, B. S., Dairyman
W. D. Salmon, M. S., Assistant Animal Husbandman
BOTANY AND PLANT PATHOLOGY
W. A. Gardner, A. M., Ph. D., Botanist
C. C. Zeliff, M. S., Associate Botanist
L. E. Miles, A. B., Ph. D., Associate Plant Pathologist
Martin Palmer, B. S., Assistant in Botany
CHEMISTRY
E. R. Miller, Ph. D., Research Chemist
M. A. Barnes, B. S., Assistant Research Chemist
ENTOMOLOGY
W E. Hinds, Ph. D., Entomologist
F.SL. Thomas, Ph. D., Associate Entomologist
F. E. Guyton, B. S., M. S., Assistant Entomologist
HORTICULTURE
, Horticulturist
C. L. Isbell, M. S., Associate Horticulturist
O. Brown, M. S., Assistant Horticulturist
S. H. Gibbons, Assistant in Horticulture
VETERINARY SCIENCE
C. A. Cary, B. S., D. V. M., Veterinarian
AGRICULTURAL EDITOR
P. O. Davis, B. S., Agricultural 
Editor
REPORT OF EXPERIMENT STATION FUNDS- DISBURSEMENTS
1922-1923
FINANCIAL REPORT
Hatch
.Salaries -------- $ 9,294.68
Labor --------- 1,228.15
Publications -.-- 513.20
Postage and Stat. 370.00
Freight and Exp. 106.40
Heat, Light, etc.
Chemicals . .------- 187.67
Seeds, Plants, etc. 342.58
Fertilizers 357.89
Feed Stuff 554.87
Library 
-------- 
346.42
Tools, Mchy, etc.. 202.03
Furniture & Fix.. 234.03
Scientific App. -- 346.46
Live Stock --- 669.10
Traveling Exp. - 133.80
Contingent Exp. 5.20
Bldg. and Land- 107.52
Totals---------- $15,000.00
Adams
$10,966.66
830.94
27.70
77.65
768.01
262.43
139.10
123.41
141.89
8.50
949.13
244.00
125.90
334.68
$15,000.0
L. E.
$16,354.09
727.59
411
75A
5E
1,38"
28
6'
23'
3(
3,88
1,32
2
$25,71
Inv. A.
$4,880.82
910.86
Farm S.
$ 750.00
1,026.06
1.43 102.76 170.42
7.61 235.45 307.74
5.85 
- -
3.48 73.55 94.91
2.34 143.09 552.95
8.84 42.50 741.47
259.45 208.65
--- 37.10 2.00
3.60 145.00 745.60
2.88 19.70 185.57
7.18....... - .
0.00 6.50 490.00
0.36 52.01 1,197.22
7.44 17.00 6.00
9.73 1,926.20 772.50
6.57 $8,857.84 $7,251.09
State of Alabama,
Lee County.
Personally appeared before me, B. L. Shi, a Notary Public
in and for said county, M. A. Glenn, known to me as Treasurer
of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, who, being duly sworn,
deposes and says the above foregoing account is true and
correct. Witness my hand this the 15th day of December, 1923.
B. L. SHI,
Notary Public, Lee County.
This is to certify that I have compared the account with
the ledger account of the Treasurer, and this is a correct
transcript of the same.
SPRIGHT DOWELL,
President, Alabama Polytechnic Institute.
PUBLICATIONS
Below are given 
the titles ofour publications 
for the fiscal
year ending June 30, 
1923. Some of these publications 
have
appeared in scientific 
magazines.
1. "Fertilizer Experiments 
with Cotton," Bulletin 
No. 219.
By J. T. Williamson and M. J. Funchess.
2. "Tractor Situation in Alabama," 
Circular No. 46. By
M. L. Nichols 
and J. W. Randolph.
3. "Results of Cotton Variety 
Tests," Circular No. 
47. By
Department of Agronomy.
4. "Life History and Control of Mexican 
Bean Beetle," Bul-
letin No. 220. By F. L. 
Thomas.
5. "Satsuma Curing or Precoloring." 
By Wright A. Gardner.
6. "A Modification of the Truog 
Soil Acidity Test." By
F. W. Parker and J. W. Tidmore.
7. "Chemistry of the Velvet Bean." 
By E. R. Miller.
8. "Does the Velvet Bean Contain Vitamine B?" By 
E. R.
Miller.
9. "Influence of Sodium Chloride on Elimination 
of Cal-
cium and Phosphorus." By E. R. Miller.
Auburn, Ala., September 1, 1923.
Dr. Spright Dowell,
Auburn, labama.
Dear Dr. Dowell:
Since the farmers of Alabama have never had a statement
showing the Experiment Station's research projects, 
I feel that
they will be interested in a list of the agricultural problems
being studied by those connected with the Alabama Experi-
ment Station. It follows:
RESEARCH PROJECTS IN AGRONOMY DEPARTMENT
1. Sources of Nitrogen for Corn.
2. Rate of Seeding Peanuts.
3. Different Methods of Seeding Oats.
4. Climatic and Soil Effects upon Length of Cotton Fiber.
5. Varieties of Sorghum for Syrup.
6. Cotton Spacing.
7. System of Crop Rotation.
8. Time of Applying Nitrate of Soda to Corn.
9. Calcium Cynamid vs. Nitrate of Soda or Ammonium Sul-
phate as Fertilizer.
10. Comparison of 
Acid Phosphate vs. 
Raw Phosphate.
11. Time of Applying 
Nitrate of Soda to 
Cotton.
12. Crops Limed vs. 
Not Limed.
13. Sources of Nitrogen 
for Cotton.
14. Fall vs. Spring 
Planted Oats.
15. Cullers' Rotation of 
Crops (including tests of 
rock vs.
acid phosphate).
16. Species of Clovers.
17. Vetch and Grain 
Mixture for Hay.
18. Plant Breeding: (a) Cotton; 
(b) Corn; (c) Wheat, oats;
.(d) Peanuts.
19. Rate of Seeding Sudan Grass and 
Cowpea Mixture for
Hay.
20. Varieties of Sorghum for 
Forage.
21. Regular Variety Tests 
of Velvet Beans.
22. Regular Short Staple Cotton 
Variety Test.
23. Regular Soybean 
Varieties.
24. Late Planted Corn 
Variety Test.
25. Regular Oat Variety Test.
26. Variety Tests of Wheat.
27. Regular Cowpea Variety 
Test for Seed.
28. Regular Corn Variety Test.
29. Regular Variety of Rye.
30. Regular Fertilizer Experiment with Cotton.
31. Special Nitrate Experiment with 
Cotton (time of apply-
ing).
32. Extensive Variety Experiment with Cotton.
33. Sources of Phosphate: Experiment with Cotton, 
Corn, and
Oats in Rotation, on four Different Fields.
34. Rate of Applying Fertilizers to Cotton.
35. Special Nitrate Experiment with Corn (time of applying).
36. Extensive Variety Experiment with Corn.
37. Velvet Bean Variety Experiment (short).
38. Fertilizer Rotation Experiment at Atmore, Jackson, 
Pratt-
ville, Cussetta, Sylacauga, and Hackleburg.
39. Extensive Winter Forage Experiment.
40. Medicago Variety Test (Including Melilotus).
41. Vetch Variety Experiment.
RESEARCH PROJECTS IN ENTOMOLOGY DEPARTMENT
1. The Pecan Weevil.
2. Turnip Web Worm.
3. Investigation of the Species Factor in Insect Control by
Fumigation.
4. Cotton Dusting for Boll Weevil Control.
5. Satsuma Fruit Disenfestation and Cleaning.
8
RESEARCH PROJECTS IN DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING
1. Soil Coefficient.
2. Preservation of Farm Timbers.
3. Air Cleaning.
4. Farm Buildings.
5. Seed-Gathering Machinery.
7. Destructional Distillation of Wood.
8. Land Clearing.
9. A Study of the Factors Influencing Traction of Wheel
Tractors.
RESEARCH PROJECTS IN BOTANY AND PLANT
PATHOLOGY
1. Brown Leaf-Spot of Pecans.
2. Sweet Potato Blackrot.
3. Soil Toxin.
4. Precoloring of Satsumas.
5. Sweet Potato.
6. Control of Pecan Scab by Means of Sprays.
7. Pecan Diseases.
8. Pecan Scab.
RESEARCH IN CHEMISTRY
1. Velvet Bean (to determine in what respect the velvet
bean is deficient in nutritive proprieties, or is otherwise
injurious).
RESEARCH PROJECTS IN HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT
1. Test to Determine the Fertilizer Needs of Different Vege-
tables.
2. Effect of Different Fertilizers on Satsuma Oranges.
3. Production of Sweet Potato Plants by two or more Fire
Heated Bed Systems.
4. Vegetable Variety Tests.
5. Sweet Potato Variety Tests.
6. Variety Tests of Pears.
7. Sweet Potato Curing and Storage.
8. Variety Tests of Pecans.
9. Variety Tests of Peaches.
10. Variety Tests of Apples.
11. Fruit Variety Tests.
12. A Study of the Factors Associated 
with Varying Suscep-
tibility to Nematode 
Injury, with Special Reference 
to
the Members of the nus 
Prunus.
13. A Study of Fruit Buds, 
Differentation of Pecans, and 
In-
ternal Changes Associated 
with the Process.
RESEARCH PROJECTS IN ANIMAL INDUSTRY
DEPARTMENT
1. Cottonseed Meal Compared 
with Velvet Beans for Fatten-
ing Steers.
2. Velvet Beans for Feeder Pigs.
3. Velvet Beans'for Brood Sows.
4. Peanuts vs. Peanut Meal 
for Hogs.
5. Peanuts as a Feed for Hogs.
6. Velvet Bean Meal vs. Wheat Bran as a Feed for Dairy
Heifers.
7. Velvet Bean Meal vs. Wheat Bran as a Feed for Dairy
Cattle.
8. Peanut Meal with Supplementary Feeds for Hogs.
9. The Value of Pastures for Milk and Butterfat Products.
RESEARCH PROJECTS IN VETERINARY DEPARTMENT
1. A Study of the Life History of Stephanurus Dentatus in
and out of Swine, and in Connection therewith the Path-
ological Actions on Swine.
2. Study the Causes and Lesfons of Swine that have Pos-
terior Body and Lumbar Paralysis.
3. Investigate and Test the Action of Poisonous Plants.
To Alabamians:
The above list may seem to be long, and one which covers
the field of agricultural research activities pretty completely.
About a year ago, however, we had a committee of farmers
studying our work and this list of research projects was sub-
mitted to them for study and recommendation. This com-
mittee of good practical farmers said:
"After a careful survey of the amount of work now being
done by the Experiment. Station, and an investigation of the
funds allotted for use in the Experiment Station work, we
are frankly amazed at the large amount of work done and the
splendid results accomplished, with the meagre funds
available. We find for example that the Mississippi A. & M.
College, our next-door neighbor, has three 
times the funds
10
we have for Experiment Station 
work. No other state in the
South is so badly crippled 
as Alabama on account 
of lack of
funds for this purpose.
"The average appropriation 
for the Southern Experi 
hent
Station is 62 percent mnore 
than ours.
"All the other agricultural 
colleges of the South adopted
long ago the substation system 
of studying local farm prob-
lems.
"Our College of Agriculture, including 
the campus, buildings,
Experiment Station, etc., has 
a total of only 360 acres of 
land,
which acreage includes a 
number of sub-stations.
"In consideration of these 
facts, we, the Experiment 
Sta-
tion committee, respectfully submit 
the. following resolution:
"That we strongly recommend 
that adequate funds be pro-
vided to enable our Experiment 
Station to start the inves-
tigations which are so badly 
needed, as shown by above list;
and that the Experiment Station be 
provided with a large
amount of additional land, including at least 
six sub-stations
properly located so as to cover the 
problem of the entire
State, and that funds be made available to properly 
maintain
these sub-stations. We recommend this 
whole-heartedly
and without reservation, because it is readily seen by the
enormous amount of work being done with the meagre 
funds
available that the money is being expended 
in a most ju-
dicious and careful manner, and we feel that if our Experi-
ment Station is properly provided for in the way of 
funds,
that it will render the service to the people which they de-
mand, and which the Director and his staff have proven
they are capable of rendering."
NEW PROJECTS WHICH SHOULD BE UNDERTAKEN
Again this committee said:
"The enormous number of new projects which should be
undertaken, but which can not be started, due to lack
of funds, and land on which to perform them, would make
a very formidable list, but we take this occasion to list below
the new projects which we believe should be undertaken,
and which have been asked for most frequently 
by the farm-
ers of the State:"
AGRONOMY
1. Occurrence, Nature, and Cause -of Soil Acidity.
2. Chemical and Bio-Chemical Effects of Lime Applied to
Soils.
3. The Influence of Soil Temperatures, Aeration, Reaction,
and Composition of the Efficiency of Legume Inoculation.
4. Study of Losses Sustained by Soil Leaching 
and Erosion.
11
5. Plant Breeding for New Strains, Increased Yields, and
for Climatic Adaption.
6. Effects of Lime and Fertilizer Treatment, and Best Crop
Combinations for Pastures.
7. Effects of Fertilizers on the Quality and Shipping Ca-
pacity of Certain Crops.
8. Experiments in the Substitution of Leguminous Crops for
Nitrogenous Fertilizers.
9. Plant Breeding for Disease and Nematode Resistance.
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING
10. Destructive Distillation of Fat Pine Stumps.
11. Farm Refrigeration.
12. Adoption of Machinery to our Conditions.
13. Syrup Making.
14. Land Clearing in Connection with Destructive Distilla-
tion.
15. Tractor Lug Project.
16. Syrup Manufacturing.
17. Sanitary Survey.
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
18. Grazing Velvet Beans with Steers.
19. Wintering Breeding Cows.
21. Velvet Beans as a Feed for Hogs.
22. A Study of Factors Governing the Keeping Quality of
Southern-made Cheese.
23. Removal of Bitterweed and Garlic Flowers from Dairy
Products.
BOTANY AND PLANT PATHOLOGY
24. The Effects of Acids and other Electrolytes of the Ab-
sorption of Raw Materials and the Retention of Food Ma-
terials by the Roots of Plants..*
25. The Life History of the Wild Onion.
26. Survey of Noxious and Poisonous Plants.
27. Protein Synthesis in the Cotton Plant.
28. Sweet Potato Diseases.
29. Cotton Diseases.
30. Honey .Plants,
12
CHEMISTRY RESEARCH
31. To Determine the Nutritional' Value of Certain Forage
Crops which are Best Suited to our Conditions.
32. Poisonous Plant Investigation.
33,. To Reduce to its Minimum the Injurious Results of 
In-
sects and to Combat Fungous and Bacterial Diseases of
the Plants by the Application of Chemistry.
34. The Production of Cheap and Efficient Motor Fuel.
35. Increasing Sugar Contents of Sorghum.
36. To Find out the Deficiencies and Injurious Constituents
of the Velvet Bean.
ENTOMOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY
37. Satsurma Orange Insects.
38. New Insecticide Materials.
39. The Life History and Methods of Control of the Mexicar
Bean Beetle.
HORTICULTURE
40. Variety and Fertilizer Studies of Common Garden Vege-
tables on the Eight Soil Types of Alabama.
41. Variety and Fertilizer Studies of Bush Trees, Fruits, Cul-
tivated and Wild.
42. Variety, Tillage, and Pruning Investigations of Fruits and
Nuts.
43. By-product Studies of Fruits.
44. A Chemical and Dietetic Study of Sweet Potatoes.
45. Forestry Studies.
46. Watermelon Investigations Covering Seed Selection, Fer-
tilization, and Diseases.
47. Precoloring Satsumas.
48. Orchard Heating Experiments.
49. Satsuma Spraying Experiments, especially for the Con-
trol of Purple Scale, White Fly, Sour Scab, and Citrus
Thrip.
50. Satsuma Fertilization.
51. Satsuma Bud Variation:
52. Satsuma Culture in General.
53. Pre-Cooling Satsumas.
54. Satsuma Cold Storage.
55. Cabbage Diseases, Fertilization, and Culture in GeneraL
56. Cause why Peach Orchards in Southern Part of the State,
which are Apparently in Fine Condition, Fail to Bloom.
"It is seen, therefore, that on account of limited funds those
associated with the Experiment Station of Alabama are in fact
leaving very many vital agricultural subjects untouched."
(Signed) DAN T. GRAY, Director.