230 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECOBD. fVoL 37 



The yield was smaller by 2.2 bu. per acre after the use of potash than with 

 phosphates, and the quality of the barley was reported as poor. Variety tests 

 with barley were continued, Chevalier yielding 13 bu. more than Tystofte and 

 19 bu. more than Svalof, but its quality being inferior to that of the other two. 



Rotation experiments to study the unexhausted manurial value of grain 

 (barley, oats, and chaff) and cake (linseed cake, cottonseed cake, and chaff), 

 when fed to sheep as a supplement to the roots in the rotation, showed 

 tentatively that the corn-fed plat gave slightly higher yields in the subsequent 

 crops. 



Tests were continued with clover and grass mixtures, the best yields of hay 

 being obtained from a mixture including " wild " white clover. Variety tests 

 with alfalfa laid down in 1911 show the best results with Russian (Europe) 

 and with Province second. 



Mangels were grown beside sugar-beet plats, and it was observed that the 

 beets required approximately three times the labor that the mangels did in 

 harvesting. It was also ascertained that, due to the large amount of earth 

 retained, the beets lost 32 per cent In washing, while the mangels lost only 9 

 per cent. 



In pasture improvement the farmyard manure plat gave the highest returns, 

 but was Inferior in quality, while the plat receiving 10 cwt. of basic slag and 

 1 cwt. of potassium sulphate gave the best all-round results. In testing the 

 varieties of lime best for grassland, Buxton lime showed the highest yield. 

 Lump lime and ground chalk gave better results than ground lime and ground 

 limestone. 



In tests instituted in 1913, plats alternately mown and grazed gave the 

 highest yields of hay and loft an aftermath of superior quality. 



Cultivation and utilization of sunflower, niger, and safflower seed (Bui. 

 Imp. Inst. [So. Kemimjton], H (1916), No. 1, pp. SS-iOi).— Brief notes are 

 given on the cultivation, harvesting, aud utilization of the seed of sunflower 

 (llelianlhus aniiuus), niger-seed plant (Guizotia abyssinica), aud safflower 

 (Carthamus tinclorius) in South Africa. 



The entire sunflower plant produces silage of fair quality. The stalks alone 

 are often used for fuel and the ash, which is high in potash, as a fertilizer. 

 The seed of all three plants is used for oil extraction, aud the seed cake result- 

 ing as a concentrate. 



Pasture problems. — Indigenous plants in relation to habitat and sown 

 species, R. G. Stapleton and T. J. Jenkin (Jour. Agr. Sci. [England], 8 (1916), 

 No. 1, pp. 26-64). — This paper continues work previously noted (E. S. R., 33, 

 p. 227), and attempts to trace (1) the relationship that exists between the 

 several indigenous plants that contribute to the herbage of definite types of 

 grassland, (2) the progressive changes that occur on fields, down to grass for a 

 varying number of years, belonging to these types, (3) the competitive inter- 

 action between sown and indigenous species, and (4) the contrast in effect on 

 the herbage of continual mowing and continual grazing. 



The types of grassland investigated are divided into two groups, the natural 

 and the seminntural. By natural types are meant those pastures which his- 

 torical evidence shows never to have been extensively under the plow or ma- 

 nured and which, if broken or manured at some remote period, have completely 

 reverted to type. By seminatural types are meant those pastures which of 

 certainty have been under the plow and, at all events, manured during the rota- 

 tion previous to reverting to grass. The seminatural types are further classified 

 as the tended and untended. The tended are those pastures which have been 

 down to grass about 20 to 50 years, receiving periodic if but slight dres.sings of 

 manure and probably sown in the first instance with rye grasses and clovers only 



