322 EXPERIMENT STATION— BULLETINS. 



It will be remembered that I am making experiments at Oscoda, Iosco 

 county; Grayling, Crawford county; Baldwin, Lake county; Walton, Grand 

 Traverse county, and Harrison, Clare county. 



At Grayling the results so far attained with young forest trees are given 

 in my last report for June, 1889. At this station I have tried for one year, 

 or in many cases for two years, a very large number of kinds of grasses and 

 other forage plants on small plats a rod square. These tests were made on 

 land which had been cropped for several years, without much, if any, fertil- 

 izing. At Harrison, for one year, I tried about a quarter of an acre of each, 

 in 1888, of spurry, rye, sweet clover, peas, alsike clover, red clover, mam- 

 moth clover, alfalfa, perennial rye grass, Italian rye grass, meadow fox-tail, 

 orchard grass, tall oat grass, Timothy, Hungarian grass, German millet, 

 June grass, meadow fescue, a mixture of one-fourth acre of tall oat grass 

 and orchard grass; another of perennial rye grass and mammoth clover; 

 another of orchard grass and mammoth clover; another of a mixture of 

 mammoth clover, red clover, alsike clover, tall oat grass, orchard grass, 

 perennial rye grass, June grass, meadow fox-tail and Timothy. 



The above tests at Harrison were made on land which had been succes- 

 sively cropped for six years, without manure or seeding to grass or clover. 



These tests at Grayling and at Harrison, added to what I have learned 

 from many other sources, satisfy me that it is a hopeless task to attempt to 

 find any grass or other forage crop, any grain or fruit or vegetable which 

 can he profitably grown without the aid of some fertilizer. An exceptionally 

 favorable season might now and then be found, at wide intervals, when such 

 crops might do very well, but they could not be relied on for profitable 

 farming. 



On such land, to produce anything worth while, some fertilizer or irri- 

 gation I believe to be indispensable. I am not yet prepared to say what 

 fertilizers would prove most profitable, or whether, even with fertilizers, 

 there would be a profit. 



The above statements are not intended to apply at present to new land 

 just broken up, or land which has been generously treated. The quality of 

 the land selected for experimenting may be graded about as follows : Oscoda 

 poorest, then that at Grayling, then Walton and Baldwin much alike, 

 Harrison best of all. 



The land of each station is jack-pine plains, and may safely be graded as 

 thin, light, or poor, in the ordinary acceptance of these terms. The botanist 

 finds the smallest number of species of wild plants growing on the poorest 

 land ; for example, a smaller number on the plats at Oscoda than on those 

 at Harrison. 



On the land newly broken, in the spring of 1888, at Oscoda, Walton, 

 Baldwin and Harrison, the size of the plats and the seeds sown on each are 

 essentially a repetition of each other; the seeds are the same as those above 

 named as sown on the old field at Harrison. 



It is very interesting to watch these experiments. Something new occurs 

 to me on every visit ; as to what to sow, the modes of sowing, time of sowing, 

 modes of cultivating and treatment of the land. 



