38 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



Plot 14. Sown with Odessa barley, 6th May, with 14 pounds Alfalfa per acre. 



Tons. Pounds. 

 Dug 20th Oct. — Weight of Alfalfa leaves and stems per acre 1 1,745 



" roots per acre 1 1,572 



Total 3 1,317 



Plot 17. Sown with Odessa barley, 6th May, with 6 pounds Alsike clover per acre. 



Tons. Pounds. 

 Dug 20th Oct. — Weight of clover leaves and steins per acre 2 847 



" roots per acre 2 1,360 



Total 5 207 



Some idea may be formed of the value of this crop turned under when we consider 

 that each ton of the mixed leaves, stems and roots will add as much nitrogen to the soil 

 as 2 tons of average barn-yard manure, while the essential mineral fertilizing con- 

 stituents gathered from depths to which the roots of many other plants do not reach, 

 make the clover plant an important enricher of the soil in these ingredients also. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH HORSE BEANS. 



Two field plots were sown with horse beans during 1897. The soU was a sandy 

 loam of fair quality, rather heavy, which was manured during the winter of 1896-97 

 with about 15 tons of barn-yard manure per acre. The manure was put out in small 

 heaps of about one-third of a cart load each and spread in the spring and ploughed under 

 about 6 inches deep, then harrowed with the smoothing harrow twice before planting. 

 The beans were planted with the seed drill in rows three feet apart, using about 50 pounds 

 of seed per acre. 



Plot 1. One acre. Tick Beans, imported seed. Sown 14th May, came up 31st 

 May, and was cut for ensilage 18th September, when the plants were still green. The 

 growth was medium to strong, vines well podded, a few beginning to ripen. Height 

 4 to 5 feet. Blight was first noticed on the vines on 7th July but afterwards almost 

 disappeared. Yield per acre, 9 tons 320 pounds. 



Plot 2. 1^ acres. This was adjoining plot 1, on similar soil and the land had 

 similar preparation and treatment. The seed was also of the variety known as " Tick," 

 but Canadian grown. Sown 14th May, came up 31st May, and was cut for ensilage 

 20th and 21st September. The growth was medium to strong and even. Height 4 to 

 4| feet, vines well podded and a larger proportion ripe than on the vines grown from 

 the imported seed. Yield per acre, 7 tons 525 pounds. 



Horse beans were grown on the Central Experimental Farm first in 1892, but that 

 year they were sown mixed with corn. None were sown separately, and no estimate 

 was made that season as to the weight of fodder produced per acre by the horse beans. 

 The -y^^^ acre plot mentioned on page 80, Report 1892, were Broad Windsor beans. 

 In 1893 horse beans were again sown with Indian corn to the extent of 12 acres, and 

 the average weight of the fodder produced by the beans was 1 ton 765 pounds per acre. 

 Two acres were also sown as a separate field crop that year with much better returns, 

 and since then horse beans ha^^ been grown each year as a separate field crop*. 



The average returns have been as follows : — 



Tons. Pounds. 

 1893, average yield per acre 8 927 



1894 « 12 896 



1895 " 7 276 



1896 " 2 1,918 



1897 " 8 423 



The very light crop in 1896 was mainly due to the prevalence of blight 



