PAKM DEPARTMENT. 121 



When grown for seed it branches more and gives a larger crop of bet- 

 ter seed if only about four (quarts of seed are sown per acre. When 

 grown for seed it may be threshed the same as clover, by machine or flail. 

 When it ripens late in the fall and is then harvested for seed, enough 

 seed will shell out to produce a full crop next spring if the land is 

 harrowed. 



The seed germinates quickly. If the weather is warm and moist the 

 field will begin to show green on the third day from sowing. It is ready 

 for mowing for hay in about six weeks, and will ripen the seed in about 

 eight weeks. It is in best condition for pasture from four to six weeks 

 after sowing, though if necessary animals can be turned on much sooner. 

 It furnishes excellent pasturage for cattle, especially milch cows, though 

 they often refuse to taste it at first, but after once eating it will leave 

 the richest clover pasture to return to it. Sheep seem to prefer it above 

 all forage, and all stock thrive upon it, when cut and cured, even eating 

 every particle of the dry straw that has been threshed for seed. 



The introduction of spurry as a forage crop alone, will prove of 

 immense benefit, but its use as a manurial crop is of much greater value. 

 Its effect on the physical condition of the soil is very marked. The 

 soil at Grayling in its natural state is so open and porous, that in pass- 

 ing over a plowed field, one sinks into it as into a heap of dry ashes, 

 but after the plowing under of a single crop of spurry the land becomes 

 so much more compact that the difference will be noticed by the least 

 careful observer. Its effects on the succeeding crops are marked in 

 comparison with the same crop succeeding any other manurial plant 

 used. This may be in part due to the changed condition of the soil 

 giving a more compact seed bed, enabling the new plant better to 

 resist drouth. The spurry itself seems especially adapted to dry soils, 

 doing even better on such soils than where there is an excess of moisture. 



There is a tendency for all grasses to grow in bunches on this 

 plains soil. This is true of all those mentioned below, as proven by 

 many trials. But the condition of the soil is so changed after a crop 

 of spurry has been plowed under, that this difficulty is much lessened, 

 and there are now plats of the following grasses very even in growth and 

 forming a uniform sward, viz., timothy and clover, timothy and red top, 

 tall meadow oat grass, red fescue, meadow fescue, sheep's fescue, and 

 alsike clover. 



There has not been sufficient time nor extended experiment enough 

 to state definitely the relative increased production following spurry over 

 that of other manures, but I am satisfied that it is far superior, on these 

 lands, to any other manurial plant that has been used. In an experi- 

 ment on an adjoining farm, more wheat was produced following spurry 

 than where Homestead Phosphate to the amount of 300 lbs. was used 

 per acre. 



There are on the experimental farm 10 acres that were broken last 

 spring and sown with spurry, which was plowed under in August, and the 

 land sown with wheat. On the farm opposite is a plat of wheat following 

 clover, and one following timothy, which had been fairly well covered with 

 barnyard manure. The wheat on the spurry field went into winter look- 

 ing stronger than either of the other fields. The result next summer will 

 be watched with great interest. 



It is believed the results already obtained by the introduction of this 

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