164 REPORT OF THE BOTANIST OF 



visited three times after the seed was sown, the last of which was on Octo- 

 ber 18. At that time there were no very nattering notes to be made. Some 

 of them were as follows : Rye, thin, two and one-half feet high, better than 

 that at Oscoda ; millet and Hungarian very thick, some of it eighteen inches 

 high; alfalfa spindling, hardly thick enough; the roots are as large as pipe- 

 stems and the plant is getting down to business so that it is difficult to pull 

 it up. Where eight sorts were sown, the ground is evenly and thickly cov- 

 ered and appears the most promising of any. June grass is hardly to be 

 seen anywhere, and then very small. Alsike clover is too thin, but makes 

 some show ; a few plants have seeded. Meadow fescue has some good 

 patches. Spurry is about a foot high and very thick. Italian rye grass looks 

 well, all things considered; Timothy .thin and poor ; peas a small, thin crop; 

 meadow foxtail too thin, will need seeding over; perennial rye grass much 

 ahead of Timothy; sweet clover very pale and thin with long, large roots; 

 red cover a thin catch, a very little of it seeding ; mammoth clover thick 

 and better; orchard grass makes a very good showing, beating Timothy by 

 all odds ; tall oat grass thin and spotted, some three feet high. 



" There is quite a ' sprinkling ' of wild stuff still growing among the grasses. 

 Huckleberries, sweet ferns, brakes, bearberries, asters, golden rod, dew- 

 berries, and many other plants turned about after the land was plowed and 

 soon came to light right end up, as though nothing had happened. In 

 fact, they seemed to enjoy the little cultivation the land had received, as a 

 good share had been killed, leaving a better chance for the survivors. 



" Hon. C. W. Garfield, a member of the State Board of Agriculture, and 

 formerly secretary of the State Horticultural Society, was with me on the 

 last visit, and enjoyed the examination of the specimens very much. 



"I have often been asked in person and by letter what I thought was the 

 outlook for successful farming on these lands. I expect to promise nothing, 

 but give results as fast as they are obtained. I am quite inclined to agree 

 with the general verdict, that the lands are entitled to rank as poor, that 

 most likely it will be natural for people to buy the best lands just when they 

 are about to go into farming, at least while good lands are cheap and abun- 

 dant, as they still are in northern Michigan. 



"We left the station on the evening of October 18, after hard frosts had 

 killed all tender vegetation. Growth had ceased, and plants of all sorts had 

 got ready for the long sleep of a six months' winter. 



" On April 9, 1889, as the snow banks had crept behind the fences or 

 retreated to the dense forests, the ice melted away, the robins returned for 

 nesting, the frogs revived, the pussy willows appeared, the elders began to 

 lengthen their limbered catkins and shed their pollen, I was anxious again 

 to see how things looked at the experiment stations. 



" The winter had been unusually open. Of course we all know that rye, 

 millet, Hungarian grass and peas which seeded last year would die in 

 autumn. Spurry is a chickweed-like plant, and is also an annual. It has 

 been successfully used in some parts of Europe as a ' starter ' on poor, sandy 

 land. It makes good food for live stock. Last autumn the crop of seed, 

 was abundant and much of it had sprouted and rooted. These young plants 

 are all dead. Whether there are yet enough seeds still living for another 

 crop this year I cannot now tell. We will wait and see. 



" Italian rye grass in the old country is called an annual. It has always 

 proved such during many years of experimenting at the Agricultural Col- 



