264 ANNUAL EEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



During the fiscal year 1923 there were distributed 104,100 pack- 

 ages of forage-crop seeds and 94,200 packages of new and improved 

 varieties of cotton. Among the forage-crop seeds were inckided 

 Grimm alfalfa, Peruvian alfalfa, Dakota-grown and Kansas-grown 

 alfalfa; Great Northern field beans; Biloxi, Black Eyebrow, Hahto, 

 Laredo, Manchu, Mandarin, Peking, Virginia, and Wilson-Five soy 

 beans; Bush, Early Arlington, and Tracy Early Black velvet beans; 

 Victor, Brabham, and Early Buff cowpeas; carpet grass, Merker 

 grass, and Sudan grass; Siberian and Kursk millets; Bangalia, 

 Chang, and Pedigree Green field peas ; Dwarf f eterita. Spur f eterita, 

 Blackhull kafir. Dwarf Yellow milo, and Sumac sorghum. 



The distribution of improved varieties of soy beans was, as last 

 year, the outstanding feature of this distribution. The soy-bean 

 crop has increased greatly, and the new varieties which the depart- 

 ment has introduced, when available commercially, will go far toward 

 rej^lacing the varieties now in use in many important sections of 

 the country. Preliminary results from efforts to obtain better forage 

 crops for the South indicate that the new lespedezas, seed of which is 

 being grown for distribution, will prove exceedingly valuable. These 

 will be included in subsequent distributions. The preliminary work, 

 however, has advanced sufficiently to justify a widespread dissemina- 

 tion in the sections where they are adapted. Preliminary tests of 

 the seed of Ladak alfalfa have proved sufficiently convincing to war- 

 rant the inclusion of seed of this variety in the distribution the com- 

 ing year. It is especially adapted to conditions in the northern 

 Great Plains region and in the Northwest. 



TOBACCO. 



Field tests conducted on " tobacco-sick " soils in the Connecticut 

 Valley have brought out marked differences in the effects of various 

 crops on the growth of tobacco following in the rotation. The effects 

 of timothy sod, red clover, and corn have been particularly unfavor- 

 able, while the growth of tobacco has been much better after onions, 

 after tobacco itself, and on land kept free from vegetation during the 

 previous season. 



Field tests in the southern manufacturing and export-tobacco 

 districts have demonstrated that mixed fertilizers containing 2 to 3 

 per cent of potash applied at the usual rate of 800 to 1,000 pounds 

 per acre frequently do not supply sufficient potash for the tobacco 

 crop. As a result characteristic symptoms of potash hunger fre- 

 quently develop. When the application of potash is increased to 40 

 pounds or more per acre these symptoms do not occur, there is a 

 notable increase in resistance to leaf-spot diseases, and the leaf is 

 otherwise improved in quality and in yield. On light soils, and 

 especially in comparatively wet years, " sand drown," a serious dete- 

 rioration of the tobacco crop, may be expected when a sufficient 

 quantity of magnesia is not contained in the fertilizer or otherwise 

 added to the soil. The quantity of magnesia required by the crop, 

 however, is comparatively small, perhaps not more than half that of 

 the potash which is needed. Both potash deficiency and magnesia 

 deficiency present characteristic symptoms which are easily recog- 

 nized, and both are readily corrected by suitable applications of fer- 

 tilizer. With constantly decreasing supplies of cottonseed meal and 



