50 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



DISCUSSION. 



Q. What are the advantages of fall plowing? 



E. A. Croman: I have never seen any. 



Q. Did the seed corn ever fail if gathered before frost. 



E. A. Croman: No. ~ 



Q. What soil should be fall plowed? 



E. A. Croman: Theoretically, the stiff clay; but I have never seen cases where I 

 thought fall plowing was advisable. 



Q. How about shredded fodder? My stock eat it when first shredded, but refuse it 

 after it has lain in the mow. 



,E. A. Croman: The first year I threshed the corn the results were somewhat unsatis- 

 factory, but now I could not get along without the shredder. I cut the corn when 

 glazed, put it through the shredder and husker, and run the stalk into a bay, forty-two 

 by nineteen by twenty. It heats, but I let it steam. It comes out in good order. The 

 trouble generally is that people do not put enough of it together and pack it. They 

 are afraid to let it heat. 



E. L. Lockwood: While poor silos and poor silage may stand in the way of dairy 

 advancement, we must in the end come to the silo as the proper storage place for the 

 entire corn crop. You can build a good silo for 60 cents a ton capacity. I have built 

 a 150-ton silo with stone foundation for $90. 



Q. Where clover won't grow can we soav rye? 



E. A. Croman: Yes, either rye or oats and peas. I prefer oats and peas, and shall 

 grow a good many acres of them this year. It is the best substitute for clover in my 

 opinion that we have at hand. Where the farmer has ho money to put into a silo he 

 mav get some of the advantages by cutting the coarse feed, putting it into boxes with 

 fairly tight covers, and letting it warm up, moistening it, of course, and mixing the 

 girain ration with it. 



RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS WITH LEGUMES. 



PEOF. J. D. TOWAR, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



To the German scientist, Helriegel, who began his investigations 

 forty years ago, resulting in the important discovery in 1888 of the 

 importance of legumes in appropriating atmospheric nitrogen, the 

 world owes a great debt of gratitude. As early as 1865 he discovered 

 the fact that certain legumes were capable of accumulating nitrogen 

 from the air, but not until a careful experiment with sterilized soil 

 possessing all the elements of fertility except nitrogen and planted to 

 seeds of several families of plants, did he discover that the Leguminosae 

 were capable of living, growing and maturing ripened seeds with no 

 other source of nitrogen than that of the atmosphere. It was about 

 this time, also, that the discovery was made that it was through the 

 small nodules or tubercles on the roots of the legumes that this atmos- 

 pheric nitrogen was appropriated. Since Helriegel's important dis- 

 covery the study of root nodules of the legumes has been very active 

 and extensive. In soils rich in nitrogen it is discovered that only 

 few of these nodules appear. It is furthermore learned that for the 

 development of the root nodule it is necessary that there be in the soil 



