EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 



489 



FOEAGE CROPS. 



The weather conditions were favorable for all varieties until September. There- 

 after the frequent rains made outdoor curing a difficult task, and for this reason 

 second crops of some of the grasses were left unharvested. The varieties tested 

 for the first time are: Meadow Fescue, though the plot is the smallest, the grass 

 amply showed its superiority for yield and quality, the tall and abundant foliage 

 remaining well preserved until cut. Bromus erectiis, the stems and seed heads 

 being more slender than those of Bromus inermis, the hay is correspondingly 

 less coarse. The yield also will probably be less, though comparisons are unsafe 

 until pure seed can be obtained, the present plot containing a large percentage 

 of oat grass. Fox tail and Orchard grass, while the seed of bromus inermis as 

 planted in 1901, was free from any mixture. Meadow Fox Tail. The earliest of 

 all grasses tested, and will furnish pasture almost as soon as the snow disappears. 

 More valuable for pasture than for meadow the foliage being short but abundant. 

 Kentucky Blue Grass, better known as June Grass, one of the most valuable 

 grasses, and in this region, as much despised as any noxious weed, owing to its 

 ever readiness in preempting every available space, and its persistency in running 

 out other grasses. Owing to the poor stand of sanfoin the plot was plowed up, 

 several attempts at reseeding having been unsuccessful owing to the poor quality 

 of the seed. 



Two legumes tested for the first time, ought to prove very valuable for late 

 pasturing, their hardiness being unsurpassed by anything ever tested here. One 

 is Seradella, planted May 21. The slender stems and numerous small leaves re- 

 mained inconspicuous until after the small pink and white blossoms appeared 

 July 19. Thereafter the rows which were 18 inches apart w'ere soon covered viith 

 a thick mat of vines which averaged over 3 feet in length and were still growing 

 and blossoming at the beginning of November, showing scarcely any damage 

 from any of the preceding frosts. The other legume is the Chick Pea (cicer 

 arietinum), planted May 21 and beginning to blossom July 14. The stout, erect 

 and many branched plants reached a height of 2l-_> feet and set numerous pods 

 about one-half of which contained peas, though for some unaccountable reason, 

 very few ripened. The plants at the beginning of November were but slightly 

 more damaged from frosts than the Seradella plants. The seed was bought for 

 Idaho Coffee Peas, it being said of it that it does "not at all resemble the German 

 Coffee Berry" and that it is a native of Idaho. The so-called German Coffee Berry 

 is a fraud. The chick pea is a native of Europe, not of Idaho. 



The greatest portion of the terraces south of the creek is too wet for most crops, 

 and the lower terrace naturally more so than the rest, having been overgrown with 

 sedges, cat tails and other aquatic plants. By hauling sand at spare times dur- 

 ing several seasons and filling the lowest places it became possible to plow about 

 one-half, or about lli acres of the lower terrace. The plot, as shown in the fol- 

 lowing table, was seeded down for a permanent meadow, in July, 1903, 12 lbs. 

 of alsike clover and six lbs. of timothy seed per acre being used. The dryer 



62 



