244 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [J^"-, 



Another way to increase the nitrogen on the farm is to buy 

 it in concentrated nitrogenous feeding stuffs, Hke gluten 

 feeds, bran, Unseed, and cottonseed meals. In this way the 

 farmer obtains the supply of protein necessary to make well 

 balanced rations with the coarse fodders, and thus improves 

 the rations and increases the yield of milk, butter, and flesh 

 of the animals. At the same time it increases the value of 

 the manure; for, especially where the manure is taken care 

 of, it will contain about three-fourths of the fertilizing in- 

 gredients in the feeds. The nitrogen in the manure increases 

 the yields of the grasses and grain crops, and the proportion 

 of protein in them, and thus improves their feeding value. 



Perhaps the most important work which the station has 

 done lately in this line is to bring out a principle which is 

 really new, namely, that certain crops are increased, not only 

 in their total yield, but in their percentage of nitrogen and 

 of protein, by nitrogenous fertilizers, while the leguminous 

 crops, like the clovers, cow peas, soy beans, and others, which 

 are the ones which gather nitrogen from the air, do not re- 

 spond to that treatment. That is, you do not get so much 

 increase of yield, and hence you do not get much increase in 

 the richness of nitrogen or protein. You take crops which 

 respond to the action of nitrogen in the soil in their yield, 

 like grasses, oats, wheat, and corn, and the yield, of course, 

 is increased more or less by the addition of nitrogen to the 

 fertilizer. It also increases the proportion of nitrogen in 

 the plant, so that if you increase the yield from one to two 

 hundred pounds you increase the amount of protein by more 

 than that, because you increase greatly the percentage of 

 protein. Some of our farmers are getting hold of this idea. 

 It is one that needs to be understood better. I commend to 

 you a perusal of the report of the Storrs Experiment Station 

 on this subject. The experiments which have been carried 

 on at Storrs in this line have shown how the farmer may in- 

 crease the nitrogen of his farm by buying such fertilizers as 

 nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, etc. These materials, 

 though, as I have just pointed out, are of but little use for 

 leguminous crops, yet they will materially increase the growth 

 of grasses and grain crops, and at the same time increase their 

 proportion of nitrogen. Thus the value of the fodder is im- 

 proved, yields of milk and butter are increased, and the 

 manure is enriched. 



