iS MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



thus hastening germination. The remainder of the piece was 

 seeded with unscratched seed. It germinated well, with no 

 noticeable difference between the scratched and the unscratched 

 seed. Because of the very dry July and August the plants made 

 but little growth before cold weather came on. 



At Fort Fairfield. 



One piece of about half an acre was seeded broadcast on the 

 farm of Mr. Clarence Powers near Maple Grove Station. This 

 had borne potatoes the preceding'season and was thought to be a 

 very clean piece of land. It was found however to be so com- 

 pletely stocked with weeds that the alfalfa had very little chance. 

 A few plants struggle through the summer, but the experiment 

 was abandoned. 



In co-operation with Dr. F. M. Perry, about one-half acre was 

 sown near the Fort Fairfield station. This was located on the 

 first river terrace, was light soil and naturally well drained. A 

 liberal application of lime and of a high grade fertilizer was 

 made. The piece was planted in drills 14 inches apart and kept 

 free from weeds with a wheel hoe and hand weeding. A good 

 stand was obtained, the plants grew well, were cut in July, made 

 good second growth and went into the winter in good condition. 

 The plants came through the winter in good shape. The stand 

 was good and for the most part the plants were vigorous. The 

 crop was cut in July, 1905. Because of the drouth but little 

 second growth was made and the plants did not go into the win- 

 ter of 1905-6 in as good condition as the preceding year. 



EXPERIMENTS BEGUN IN I905. 



The U. S. Department of Agriculture placed at the disposal 

 of the Station for distribution among experimenters in Maine, 

 500 pounds of Montana grown alfalfa seed. The following is 

 quoted from a department letter relative to this seed. "This 

 seed contains quite a percentage of hard seeds, i. e. seeds that 

 will not germinate in the ordinary time and we are now consid- 

 ering the advisability of putting all this seed through a seed 

 scratching machine to see if that will not improve its germinat- 

 ing power. * * * The Montana grown seed we propose 

 furnishing you shows 53.5 per cent of sprouts in 3 days ; prob- 

 ably a 7 or 8 day test will bring the germination up to 65 or 70. 



