EXPERIMENTS ON THE INFLUENCE OF FERTILIZERS 



UPON THE YIELD OF TIMOTHY HAY WHEN 



GROWN ON DUNKIRK CLAY LOAM IN 



TOMPKINS COUNTY, N. Y. 



The census for 1900 gives the area in meadows approximately 

 one-third the area of the improved land in the State. All other 

 cultivated crops are reported to occupy an equal area, leaving one- 

 third the improved area unaccounted for but presumably in pasture. 

 Thirty-one per cent of the area in farm in New York State is unim- 

 proved. Presumably much of this unimproved area is in woodland 

 and doubtless some is pastured. The hay and forage crops of 

 New York State in 1900 constituted nearly two-fifths of the value of 

 all of the crops, not including pasture, produced in the State; and 

 between one-ninth and one-eighth of the value of the hay and forage 

 crops of the United States. It is evident from the above statistical 

 evidence that grass is an important crop in New York State. It 

 has become so because of the natural adaptability of the climate 

 and soil to the growth of grass and not because of, but in spite of, 

 economic conditions. 



The Agricultural Experiment Station of Cornell University began 

 two years ago a rather systematic study of the grasses and forage 

 crops. Considerable data has already been accumulated bearing 

 upon the general problem of the development of pastures and mead- 

 ows of the State. The following report of progress has been selected 

 for publication at this time because the marked influence of fertilizers 

 containing nitrogen suggests the importance of more extended 

 trials by farmers themselves of commercial fertilizers containing 

 nitrogen. If such trials should prove the results here reported to have 

 a wide application in the State they would further emphasize the 

 importance of the "quest for nitrogen" by means of leguminous 

 crops and by the preserving of stable manure, and particularly 

 emphasize the importance of absorbing the liquid excrements, which 

 contain the bulk of the nitrogen excreted, by the use of bedding and 

 other absorbents. It is assumed that this experiment will be appli- 

 cable to other regions in Central New York and perhaps the whole 

 State where the same-soil type occurs. It is probable that there are 

 other types of soil on which the same results may not be obtained 



