Farm Bureau Work in New York State for 19 14 2123 



fhe most interesting feature of these yields was the strength of the 

 brome grass and the weakness of the rye grasses. Their appearance 

 the first year was the reverse of their yields at the end of two years. 



A feeding test to determine the palatability for horses of the grass 

 from each plat was made by the farmer at the State hospital. The horses 

 readily ate that from each plat except the last ; the oat grass was no better 

 than straw for them. 



On the farm of the Broome County Home an expeiimental pasture 

 was established in the spring of 1910. The past season has been the 

 fifth alternate period of grazing and rest, the only treatment for this 

 year. Cattle were turned into the field for the first half of June and 

 of July and shut out of the enclosure for the remainder of each month. 

 Grazing was continuous from August 5 until the close of the season. On 

 August 7 about twenty persons interested in the experiment visited 

 the field and noted the benefit it had received from lime, seeding, and 

 fertilizing in 191 1, as well as the gain from restricted grazing periods. 



Two demonstrations of the value of top-dressing timothy meadows 

 with chemical fertilizers were carried out on fields where the sod was 

 good. An application of 115 pounds per acre of ammoniimi sulfate 

 alone caused some lodging of the hay but increased the yield .64 of a ton 

 per acre, which may be considered profitable. For the other demon- 

 stration a mixture of 100 pounds ammionium sulfate, 100 pounds acid 

 phosphate, and 25 pounds muriate of potash, was applied to a half acre 

 of old meadow. The tmfertilized sod yielded at the rate of 1.3 tons per 

 acre; the top-dressed sod yielded an increase of i.i tons per acre, which 

 was worth nearly double the cost of the fertilizer applied. 



Demonstrations of the value of liming land that is to be seeded for 

 new meadows have been many and unsolicited. These increased yields 

 are largely the accuinulating results of the lime propaganda begun by the 

 farm bureau three years ago. One of these demonstrations was on a 

 field located in a river bottom where a partial top-dressing of marl was 

 applied at the rate of five hundred pounds per acre two years ago, after 

 a wheat crop had been removed from the young seeding. The second 

 crop had the same appearance as the first, and the increase in yield, due 

 to liming at the start, was 50 per cent, or 2124 pounds of hay per acre. 



The most instructive demonstration in liming hill land was carried 

 out on the Binghamton State Hospital fann. On a poor hilltop slaked 

 lump lime was applied at the rate of two tons per acre over a part of 

 the field in 19 12, previous to seeding it down. This year the limed part 

 yielded 3550 pounds per acre of clear timothy hay, while 1040 pounds 

 per acre of weedy hay were taken from the unlimed part of the 

 field. 



Interest in the use of pure cultures of nitrogen-gathering bacteria for 

 inoculating legimies has been gratifying. A nimiber of farmers have tried 

 cultures for clover seed supplied by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, in order to ascertain if the health and the vigor of the crop 

 could be increased in that way. While some of these experimenters have 

 reported favorably already, the results can be best jvidged when the 

 hay crop is harvested next year. Cultures for soy beans produced a 

 much darker green color in the leaves on two farms, indicating that much 



