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HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 327 



perennial grasses and clovers may be allowed to mature seed which will 

 scatter over the ground and help fill up the vacancies. After the land is 

 pretty well covered with a good growth it may be mowed once only, rather 

 early, and not pastured, or if not mowed, pastured only slightly, allowing 

 the plants to keep plenty of leaves for a good growth. After four or six 

 years, the turf may be plowed and a orop of potatoes, oats, peas, buckwheat 

 or wheat taken off, and the land reseeded after the crop is taken off, and 

 remain again seeded for several years. 



Aim from the start to keep the land improving by generous treatment. 

 I am inclined to believe that it will be found best in the long run, to add 

 some fertilizer every year, for a time at least, probably superphosphate for 

 clovers and the like, and something else to help the grasses proper, using 

 every speck of barnyard manure than can be found. In the latter case, the 

 subject of carefully husbanding the supply should be well understood, not 

 forgetting that most of the urine of animals is usually lost, although it is of 

 nearly as much value as a fertilizer as are the solid excrements. Some kinds, 

 of muck are worth experimenting with. 



The poor homesteader, above all others, should understand the principles 

 of agriculture if he expects to succeed on these lands. If he has to depend 

 for his living from the start on what he can dig out of the soil and has no 

 other business to help him, the plains are no place for him. 



To manage the sandy plains well and most profitably, if it can be done at 

 all, can best be done by men who have capital, by men who can afford to 

 labor and to wait. If success come at all, it will ultimately come with a 

 generous treatment of the soil from the very start. The land can either be 

 subdued and improved a little piece at a time by the poor man who has a 

 good piece of land to live on, or by the capitalist who may undertake the 

 improvement of large areas. 



Finally, do not place too much confidence in some of the suggestions here 

 made, as future and more extended experiments may show that some of them 

 are ill-advised. 



W. J. BEAL, 

 Botanist of the Experiment Station. 



Agricultural College, Mich., 

 Nov. 1, 1889. 



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NO. 55— HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 



NOTES ON FRUIT TESTING AT THE SOUTH HAVEN SUB-STATION, 



BY T. T. LYON. 



In response to the earnest requests of the fruit growers along the eastern 

 shore of Lake Michigan, the Board of Agriculture authorized the establish- 

 ment of a sub-station, for the purpose of testing the value of the new 

 varieties of fruit in that section. 



