o 



C G T A M » C A L^ 



United States Department of Agrici 



Circular No. 20. (Agros. .57.) 



DIVISION OF AGROSTOLOGY. 



[Grass and Forage Plant Investigations,] 

 F. Lamson-Scribner, Agrostologist. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH FORAGE PLANTS IN ONTARIO. 



The following brief report by Dr. P. Beveridge Kennedy, an assis- 

 tant in the Division, on a portion of the proceedings of a meeting of 

 the Ontario Agricultural and Experimental Union, held at Guelph, 

 Ont., December 6-8, 1899, and which Dr. Kennedy attended offici- 

 ally, will beof value to many farmers in our northern States. — F.L.8. 



The large majority of the experiments were carried on with the 

 cereals,' root crops, and horticultural plants, while grasses and forage 

 plants were only investigated and experimented with to a small 

 extent. 



The following table indicates the gradual development of the Ontario Agricul- 

 tural and Experimental Union since its foundation. While in 1886 only one 

 experiment was undertaken by 13 experimenters there have been carried on in 

 1899 twenty-three different experiments by 3,485 experimenters: 



The diflflculty met with in the proper receipt of reports from the free distribu- 

 tion of seeds is met with by the Ontario Experimental Union to a larger degree 

 than in our Division here. 



Cooperative experiments in .agriculture for the Province of Ontario. 



Years. 



1886 

 1888 

 1891 

 1892 

 1893 

 1894 

 1895 

 1896 

 1897 

 1898 

 1899 



Satisfac- 

 tory 

 reports. 



8 

 40 

 126 

 295 

 416 

 504 

 513 

 501 

 610 

 667 

 739 



It will be seen that out of 3,485 experimenters only 739 sent in satisfactory 

 reports during the season of 1899. 



This in a large measure is due to many farmers feeling too keenly their lack of 

 educational ability to write \x\} a report or to fill out the blanks forwarded to 

 them. Sometimes, however, it is due to neglect, or owing to the experiments 

 having resulted in a failure they have not cared to inform anyone of it. 



There are 3,505.422 acres of land in Ontario devoted to the growth of hay and 

 clovers. 



Within the last thirteen years 72 different varieties of hay and clovers have 

 been experimented with by the Ontario Agricultural College, while 8 varieties 

 have been tested throughout Ontario. 



