FIELD CROPS. 633 



securing- true Dwarf Essex seed, as tliis is tlie variety which has been 

 found to be most valuable. Eape seed was sown at different dates in 

 June and July and the result favored sowing about July 1. Drilling 

 was preferred to sowing broadcast, since the former method saved seed, 

 allowed easy cultivation, and suffered less loss from cattle tramping and 

 lying on the crop. One acre of rape afforded jjasturage for 9 lambs for 

 7 weeks and produced a total gain of 202^ lbs., or 22^ lbs. per lamb. 

 It was not found practicable to iiasture rape later than November 15. 

 The animals pastured on this plant after it became frosted were subject 

 to digestive disorders. Animals should be well fed on dry food before 

 being turned into a held of rape. The cost of labor in i^lanting and 

 growing 15 acres of rape on the station farm was $42.25. 



Effects of difTerent fertilizing elements on the composition and 

 combustibility of tobacco, H. J. Patterson [Agl ScL, 8 {1894), No. 

 6-9, pp. 329-352, dgm. 1). — Conclusions of foreign investigators are cited 

 and the experiments made by the author and previously published ^ are 

 tabulated and discussed. The author also gives the ratio of chlorin to 

 potash in the ash of the principal species of wood growing in tobacco 

 sections and in the principal cultivated plants from the same regions. 

 He finds that broom sedge and old field pine contain a relatively large 

 proportion of chlorin, and hence he justifies the practice of allowing old 

 tobacco fields to grow up in sedge and pine, the implication being that 

 these plants remove a large i^ortion of the chlorin, which is believed to 

 have an unfavorable effect on the combustibility of tobacco. 



Studies on wheat, von Liebenberg {Mitt. Ver. Ford, landw. Ver- 

 suchsiv. Oesterr., 7 {1892), No. 1, pp. 59-86; ahs. in Centbl. agr. Chem., 

 23 {1894), No. 11, pp. 748-752). — By planting summer wheat at differ- 

 ent distances, and by giving to the different plats different manures, 

 moisture conditions, and seeds of different sizes, the character of the 

 growth was made to vary considerably. 



The longer the straw the longer and heavier was the ear; the longer 

 and heavier the ear the greater the number of grains borne upon it and 

 the heavier the individual grains. 



The conditions for the production of sweet and sour silage, A. 

 B. Griffiths {miem. News, 70 {1894), No. 1828, pp. 273-275).— Acid 

 silage, which is pn. 'need when the fermentation proceeds at a tempera- 

 ture below 49° C., i;> divided into two kinds, (1) low-temperature acid 

 silage, in which the temperature has not risen above 32° C, and (2) 

 high-temi^erature acid silage, in which fermentation proceeds at tem- 

 peratures of 32 to 49° C. 



In the former the principal germ isolated was the acetic acid ferment. 

 In high- temperature acid silage tlie germs found were the acetic-acid 

 ferment, the lactic-acid ferment, the butyric-acid ferment, and Bacillus 

 subtilis, 



» Maryland Sta. Bui. 26 (E. S.R., 6, p. 209). 



