128 EXPERIMENT STATION KECORD. 



476, I, pp. 883-887). — Analyses of a number of samples of soils are reported which 

 were made to test the accuracy of the auger method of sampling soils. The results 

 were not conclusive. 



Soil cultivation, J. H. Grisdale {Canada Expt. Farms Rpts. 1901, pp. 295-298).— 

 A brief discussion of cultivation as a means of improving the -ihysical condition of 

 soils. 



Summer fallows, A. Mackay (Canada Expt. Farms Rpts. 1901, pp. 505-507). — 

 A l)iief discussion of methods of summer fallowing and of the advantages of the 

 practice. 



FERTILIZERS. 



The cowpea and tlie velvet bean as fertilizers, .J. F. Duggar [Alabama Col- 

 lege Stu. Bid. 120, pp. 123-179, figs. 3). — "This bulletin records the results of more 

 than 50 experiments conducted at Auburn during the past 5 years, to ascertain the 

 effects of cowpeas and velvet beans in the improvement of the soil. The amount of 

 soil improvement has been determined by the increase in the yields of cotton, corn, 

 oats, wdieat, and sorghum, grown as first, second, third, or fourth crops after the 

 stubble and roots of cowpeas or velvet beans, or after vines, stubble, and roots of 

 these plants have been plowed under. The basis for determining this increase has 

 been the yield of each crop on plats where no leguminous i)lant has recently grown." 

 Different varieties of cowpeas differ considerably in fertilizing value. In these experi- 

 ments the average amount of nitrogen supplied by tlie whole crop was 70.2 lbs. per 

 acre; by the stubble, roots, and fallen leaves, 19.75 lljs., or 28 per cent of the whole. 

 Velvet beans and cowpeas were of about equal value as soil improvers. The percent- 

 age increase of the following crops when the vines were plowed under averaged 63 

 per cent in case of cotton and 87 per cent in case of sorghum. 



"When the vines of the cowpea or velvet bean were utilized as hay and only the 

 roots and stubble employed as fertilizer, the increase in the yield per acre of the crop 

 immediately succeeding the stubble was as follows:" Cotton, 18 per cent; corn, 32 

 per cent; oats, 334 per cent; wheat, 215 per cent; sorghum hay, 57 per cent. "The 

 largest percentage increase from either the vines or stubble of cowpeas or velvet 

 beans was made by wheat and fall-sown oats, probably because these best prevented 

 the washing away or leaching out of the fertilizing material in the stubble or vines of 

 the legumes. . . . The value of the increased product resulting from the use of the 

 entire legume for fertilizer was greater with cotton and sorglium than with corn, 

 oats, or wheat. . . . Comparing the fertilizing effect of the vines with that of the 

 stubble of the cowpea and the velvet bean, the excess in the next crop in favor of the 

 vines averaged as follows:" Corn, 49 per cent; sorghum hay, 9 per cent; cotton, 40 

 per cent. 



"With oats and wheat the vines of these summer legumes were not superior to the 

 stubble when the small grains were sown immediately after the legumes matured. 



"The fertilizing effect of the stubble of cowpeas or velvet beans was very transi- 

 tory on sandy land, the average increase in the second crop of corn after the stubble 

 being only 1..34 bushels per acre, or 12 per cent, as compared with the yield of a j^lat 

 that had not borne legumes. 



" The fertilizing effect of the vines of cowpeas and velvet beans was less transitory 

 than that of the stubble, and the increase was 24 to 54 per cent in the second crop, 

 14 per cent in the third crop (oats), and the favorable effect was even perceptible in 

 the fourth crop (sorghum) grown in the same year as the third. . . . 



" On the other hand, on very light soil the fertilizing effects of both stubble and 

 vines had practically disappeared within 12 months after the plowing in of the 

 legumes. ' ' 



Fertilizer experiments on moor soils, results of experiments by the 



