324 EXPERIMENT STATION— BULLETINS. 



none with flowering stems; No. 16, thick, one foot high, freely seeding, 

 some seed sprouting on the ground ; No. 17, better than perennial rye grass, 

 some of it has seeded; No. 18, Timothy thin and very light, no stems with 

 spikes; No. 19, thick, even, not quite so large as some; No. 20, none seen; 

 No. 21, appears too thin, must be seeded over; No. 22, spindling, very stout 

 roots, hard to pull by hand, thin, promising ; No. 23, very thick, some of it 

 one and a half feet high, much of it eight inches; No. 24, scattering, some 

 good patches; No. 25, thin, two and a half feet high, spikes short; No. 26, 

 about like the German millet. 



The rye, Hungarian and millet were cut and taken off. The clover sown 

 on that ground was not harrowed. Wild sweet ferns and brakes and other 

 wild plants were rather common all over the plats. 



The following operations were performed in 1889: In April, a thick top- 

 dressing of good old barnyard manure was spread on the east end of each 

 plat, extending over a space about twenty feet square. At the same time two 

 quarts of Homestead superphosphate was sown on a similar space near the 

 middle of each plat. Number 7 was reseeded with tall oat grass, number 

 14 was seeded to red clover, number 18 was reseeded to Timothy, meadow 

 fescue was reseeded on number 24, alsike clover seeded on number 21, June 

 grass on number 20. Number 27 was harrowed, sown to red clover and 

 rolled. On July 11 a strip of new land two rods wide along the east end of 

 the plat was broken up as shallow as it could well be plowed. The inten- 

 tion is to backset it and seed in spring. In October, when visited, this piece 

 was quite clean, only a few wild plants having grown up through the 

 furrows. 



On October 16, at the close of the second growing season, the following 

 notes were taken : 



The spring was very dry till near the end of May, but wet and cool in 

 June, favorable for young grass and clover. Where the seven sorts were 

 sown two years ago, without harrowing or plowing, there is rarely anything 

 to show for it. The seed sown where the new land had simply been 

 harrowed is coming on quite well, as though in time it might amount to 

 something. Those most prominent are orchard grass, oat grass, Timothy and 

 the clovers. Number 2, mammoth clover and orchard grass sown a year ago 

 last spring, well seeded, clover making the most show, excepting where the 

 barnyard manure was spread ; there the orchard grass has made the most 

 progress and crowded the clover. In all cases, so far as can be seen, the 

 barnyard manure helps the true grasses more than it helps the clovers, while 

 the superphosphate has helped the clovers more than the true grasses. The 

 benefit of superphosphate to the clover is very marked and unmistakable. 

 Number 3, tall oat grass and orchard grass: the manure helps; can't see 

 as superphosphate has been any benefit; a very good show, two to three feet 

 high. Both have seeded and the seed has fallen and is coming up in places. 

 This is better than a plat next to it where tall oat grass was sown alone. 

 Numbers 4, 6, 8, orchard grass : Short ; the manure helps it ; can't see as 

 superphosphate did ; not very many stems have gone to flower and seeded. 

 Number 7, tall oat grass : Mostly sown a year ago last spring ; rather thin, 

 not so good as where something else is sown with it. Number 10, sweet 

 clover : This was eaten by cut worms in spring, as I suppose other plants 

 were to some extent ; the plants are very scattering, slim, two feet or more 

 high, seeded, now nearly all dead ; this plant is of no account so far as I can 



