• EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS 89 



1897 return either the greatest amount of green fodder or dry matter. 

 That honor belonged the plot in which the rows were forty-two inches 

 apart. The yield of protein increased as the distance between the corn 

 plants was lengthened up to forty-two inches apart between the rows 

 with kernels three inches apart in the rows. Such rows also yielded the 

 greatest amount of N. free extract per acre. An important point was 

 brought out in the selection of the seed corn, namely, that a well ma- 

 tured crop furnishes so much better seed than one ripened in unfavor- 

 able weather that it abundantly pays to save seed corn for two or three 

 years in order to plant thoroughly ripened kernels. There was a diifer- 

 ence of 11 per cent in favor of the crop grown from two year old seed 

 well ripened over the one planted with seed of the previous year which 

 was cold and rainy at and before harvest. By the kindness of the 

 Chemical division of the Station analyses have been made of the leaves, 

 stalks and ears of various kinds of corn in successive stages of ripe- 

 ness. The results are being prepared for publication. The results of 

 the other experiments in the field culture of corn will be ready for pub- 

 lication in the same bulletin. The continuation of the studies on the 

 life history and remedies of corn smut have reached no definite con- 

 clusion. So far no means of lessening the disease have been discovered. 

 It is fortunate that when the corn plants are attacked by smut the result- 

 ing products are not poisonous to live stock. The great vitality of the 

 spores and their persistence in the soil through the lapse of several 

 years, makes the treatment of the disease a difficult matter. Several 

 varieties of corn were tested. The seed of the Gilman Flint has been 

 reserved to send to the northern part of the State next spring. The 

 variety promises well because of its earliness and abundant forage for 

 that section of the State. An experiment conducted by Mr. Fulton 

 brought out the fact that there was a material difference in the water 

 content of cornfields when properly cultivated and when neglected. 



Oats — Several varieties, including the International, Scotch Chief, two 

 strains of the American Banner, Lincoln, Michigan Wonder, Early Sibe- 

 rian, and New Marine were tested. The season was so illy adapted to 

 the growth of this crop that the results of the test will not be reported 

 until confirmed or disproved by the work of another season. 



Clover — The season of 1897 has been moist and well suited to the 

 production of a large yield of this legume. Alsike, which has been here- 

 tofore a rather treacherous crop, has demonstrated its value in wet 

 seasons and proper soils. In Field 12 it has given abundant pasture and 

 a yield of hay amounting to a ton per acre. Both the Mammoth and the 

 June Clover have returned heavy crops amounting to fully two tons 

 to the acre at the first cutting. Neither of the last two varieties of 

 clover have done as well on muck on the College farm as the Alsike. 



Other forage crops — Owing to the cold and somewhat backward spring 

 the cow peas purchased of a southern firm did not make a good stand. 

 The Alfalfa, which gave nearly five tons of hay per acre the previous year, 

 was totally killed by the winter, and hardly a living root could be found 

 in the spring of 1897. Neither Kaffir corn nor sorghum showed superior- 

 ity to Indian corn when allowed to head out and approach maturity 

 before cutting. A new forage crop for sandy lands called Sand Lucerne 

 gives great promise, though its ability to withstand the winter has not 

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