received from the various varieties of lupines, white, yellow and blue, consists in their fitness for green manuring. The plant grows rapidly, is succulent, and comparatively rich in nitrogenous matter. The crop can be ploughed under with profit in the beginning of August. The disintegration of the plant has usually sufficiently advanced at the beginning of September to render the soil fit for thorough mechanical preparation, preparatory to the seeding down of grasses or of winter crops. - Serradella (Ornithopus sativus). — The successful cultivation of this valuable fodder crop depends, in our part of the country, apparently in exceptional degrees, on the character of the soil and the season. A deep, sandy loam, and a fair average temperature of the summer season, tend to secure success. Under favorable circumstances we have obtained from ten to twelve tons of green fodder, with an average percentage of dry matter of from nineteen to twenty per cent. Fed green from the beginning to the end of September, 1887 and 1889, at the rate of seventy to eighty pounds per day, with one-quarter of the ordinary English hay ration (five pounds), the result has been in an exceptional degree satisfactory. Serradella has surpassed in our case the effect of Southern cow-pea and vetch and oats, as a green fodder for dairy cows. It competes fairly with soja bean in that connection. Cold and wet summer seasons, and cold, springy lands, each in their own way interfere seriously with a timely vigorous growth, and thus with the production of a remunerative crop. Our trial with this crop during the late season has been a failure, on account of the springy character of the land selected for its cultivation. Bokhara Clover (Melilotus alba) and Sainfoin (Onobrychis sativa, Esparsette) are already described in previous pages (Field B). The bulky, heavy growth of the Bokhara clover, and its pleasant odor, resembling somewhat that of the sweet vernal grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum), render it desirable to institute experiments for the purpose of ascertaining its fitness for ensilage. Its stems are succulent at the time when the plant has reached its full height (four to four and one-half feet). Our locality is evidently too cold to render the cultivation of sainfoin advisable. Sulla (Hedysarum coronaria) and Lotus villosus have for several years shown a healthy and vigorous growth on our grounds; they stand our average winter very well. Both deserve a serious trial for stocking pastures with a nutritious growth. They shade the ground more efficiently in such localities than any of our coarser clover varieties. Some subsequent statements of their composition illustrate their high feeding value. Sugar Beets. The seeds were sent on by the United States Department of Agriculture, for trial, accompanied by the directions to return in due time average specimens of roots of the five varieties for examination at the laboratory of the department in Washington. They were planted in rows two feet apart, in a wellprepared soil, May 5, each variety properly marked. The young plants came up May 17; they suffered subsequently somewhat from leaf-miners, but soon recovered without any apparent serious consequences. The crop was cleaned twice with the cultivator, and the plants thinned out to six inches apart July 8. They suffered during the latter part of the summer here and there from brown spots on the leaves. The pulling of the roots began October 2, with the following. |