254 Seventeenth Annual Report of the 



have been set 2 rods apart, the half standards 25 by 33 feet. The 

 object in planting this orchard is to demonstrate orcharding 

 methods in this section where orcharding has been neglected, but 

 where it should prove a profitable farm venture. 



On parallel hillside plats, crimson clover, an innovation in this 

 section, was grown as easily as alsyke clover. Alfalfa, nursed with 

 oats, is fairly started on a plat of gravelly silt loam in level low 

 land. 



Cooperating with the State College of Agriculture at Cornell 

 University, 43 varieties of Flint and Dent corn were tested on the 

 farm, with the result that two varieties of Flint corn, namely, 

 Dutton, grown by W. S. Mink, Farrington, N. Y., and Straw- 

 berry, grown by J. G. Purley, Ithaca, ]ST. Y., were early, gave a 

 fair amount of roughage and a good yield of ears. A white Dent 

 variety, grown by Ethel Baush, Hauppange, L. I., and North- 

 western, a red Dent, grown by C. W. Farm, Ithaca, K. Y., gave 

 a large amount of roughage and a fair yield of ears, making them 

 particularly desirable for ensilage. A red Flint, grown by C. W. 

 Woodward, Black River, N. Y., and Michigan, a yellow Dent, 

 grown by John A. Scribner, Farmington, 1ST. Y., gave a large 

 amount of roughage, but little corn. Apparently the latter two 

 are too late for this section of the country. 



One hundred and fifty-six rods of tile drains have been laid. 

 Hard burned 3 and 4-inch tile has been used in most cases. It 

 has been laid from 2^ to 3 feet deep, then covered with 18 inches 

 of broken shale rock. This plan, it is thought, will j)revent the 

 hard-pan, in which the tile has often been laid, from creeping 

 into the drain and eventually clogging it. 



Thirty acres of hillside pasture land have been cleared of brush 

 and stone, preliminary to putting under the plow. 



A four-day farmers' institute school was held at Alfred, 

 March 1-4, under the combined management of the Department 

 of Agriculture and the school, with the State Department of Edu- 

 cation, the State College of Agriculture, the Geneva Experiment 

 Station and the State School of Agriculture at St. Lawrence Uni- 

 versity cooperating. There were 84 separate lectures delivered, 

 attended by 1,200 to 1,500 people. It was a very successful insti- 

 tute, and it was pronounced by many to be the most successful 



