EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 239 



fairly good pasture but they ate the clover silage with avidity. To 

 determine how much well cured clover hay was represented by the silage, 

 4,691 pounds of freshly cut clover was spread out to dry. Two days 

 later it was cured enough to haul to the barn, weighing then 1,960 

 pounds. On the 12th of November, four months later, it weighed 1,740 

 pounds, 37 per cent of the original weight. The 2,773 pounds of silage 

 therefore represented 1,026 pounds of well cured hay. The chief objec- 

 tion to putting clover in the silo is that it is slow and expensive work 

 to draw so much water to the barn. The green clover is inconvenient 

 to handle, is hard to rake up and is particularly disagreeable to pitch 

 on and off the wagon. The comparative losses of field curing and silo- 

 ing have not been determined. 



Later the trial was repeated. The silage kept well and the cows 

 liked it, but it is so much cheaper to allow the sun to dry the hay than 

 it is to draw the heavy green forage to the silo, that clover ought to be 

 cured as hay, except, perhaps, in extremely wet seasons. 



Experiments were conducted to test the value of clover cut in the 

 early autumn and grown from seed soAvn the spring of the same year. 

 When the season was moist the yield was as high as a ton to the acre 

 on the wheat stubbles. Neither cattle nor sheep seemed to like this 

 fall crop although secured without exposure to rain. Chemical analysis 

 showed that the nitrogen in the clover was largely in the form of amido 

 bodies and not in the form of true protein. 



The varieties of clover in general use in the state are the medium red 

 clover, the alsike and the mammoth. The red and the alsike have fur- 

 nished hay about equal in value. The mammoth gives a hay not eaten 

 as clean as the medium because of the more woody stem. The alsike 

 clover has yielded a large amount of hay per acre and has proven rather 

 better for pasture than the medium, being more persistent. A certain 

 field containing 34 acres was used as a pasture for IS head of growing 

 cattle. This quantity of stock was insufficient to keep the clover eaten 

 off. Mowers were put in on the twenty-fourth of June and the hay was 

 hauled on the thirtieth. The yield for the 34 acres was 36 tons of cured 

 hay, most excellent in quality, green in color and free from dust. At 

 other times alsike has given a very gummy hay resembling the second 

 crop of medium clover. Alsike is apt to come up as a weed in subse- 

 quent crops of corn, but such weeds are not troublesome although they 

 are plants out of place. 



Crimson clover has not proven satisfactory to the station as a forage 

 crop for dairy cows. 



Vetches have been tried repeatedly but the hay has not been palatable 

 to either sheep or cattle. 



Peas have been sown on fall prepared ground, 2 bu. of seed to the 

 acre at the earliest possible moment in the spring. From I/2 bu. to 1 

 bu. of oats have been sown on a little later, just as the peas had germi- 

 nated. Unfortunately careful records are not at hand to show the yield 

 of hay from this crop nor have comparative feeding trials demonstrated 

 the relative value of such hay compared with clover. The cattle have 

 liked the .hay and have eaten it in sufficient quantities to produce a full 

 yield of milk. On several occasions the crop has been harvested into 



