EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS 265 



after the ground had become warm, fifty plants were transferred to the 

 open ground, into good rich loamy soil, and set four feet apart each way. 

 They were shaded for a few days and given good care through the season 

 and made a thrifty growth, sending up half a dozen or more stems about 

 three feet high from each root. Several of the plants produced blossoms. 

 The next year, 1896, the growth was larger, forming a thicket three and 

 a half to four feet high. Some of the stems measured fully eight feet in 

 total length. A few suckers were produced from underground shoots at a 

 distance from the main plant but such cases were not numerous. All the 

 plants blossomed profusely this year about the last of August, some being 

 earlier than others. About half the number produced seeds in abundance, 

 the remainder bearing staminate flowers only and producing no seeds. 

 A portion of the seeds became ripe enough to grow, but half or more were 

 still too green for germination when the plants were killed by frost on 

 September 22. A limited test was made of the feeding qualities of the 

 plant. Young leaves and shoots were offered to cattle, sheep and horses, 

 which ate them readily. Some of the objections to sacaline as a practical 

 crop to grow are: 



1. It is more troublesome to start than other fodder crops. 



2. It will remain as a weed when the ground is wanted for something 

 else. 



3. It cannot be cured and handled as hay. 



4. The stems quickly become woody and unfit for feed. 



5. The yield is no greater than that of corn and other crops more easy 

 to manage. 



FLAT PEA. 



Lathyrus silvestris. 



Information gained regarding this plant during the year relates to its 

 yield, seeding habit and palatability to stock. The last point suggests 

 what now appears to be the greatest hindrance to its use. Stock which are 

 well fed, as those of the college herd, consume the fodder in both the 

 green and dry state in most cases so far as tested with great reluctance. 

 While the fodder is young and succulent it has been found practicable to 

 make use of it in the green state for one of the fodder rations of the day, 

 but green clover or alfalfa are under the same conditions relished much 

 better. 



During the present damp season the plants of the flat pea have pro- 

 duced few blossoms and very little seed. The growth, however, has been 

 heavy. On June 29 one acre was measured off, and on this and the two fol- 

 lowing days the crop was cut and weighed as fast as it could be hauled to 

 the scales. The total product from the acre in the green state was 23,997 

 pounds, or practically twelve tons. The crop was at once spread out again 

 and dried for hay, which when cured weighed 5,431 pounds, or about two 

 and three-fourths tons. On September 16 and 17 the same acre was cut 

 again, yielding 17,188 pounds or over eight and one-half tons when green, 

 which shrank to 3,636 pounds or a little over one and three-fourths tons 

 when cured. The total yield of hay from the acre for the season was there- 

 fore a little over four and one-half tons. Last year the yield from the 

 same ground from a single cutting was only three-fourths of a ton per 

 acre. 



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