New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 277 
attention, nor come into general culture. It is similar to corn as a 
forage crop and but slightly superior to it in this respect, if at all; 
while it is markedly inferior from the standpoint of grain produc- 
tion. In consequence, it never has, and probably never will displace 
corn, except in some sections where its drought-resistance makes it 
valuable. 
Among other crops tested and found inferior to corn have been 
teosinte, pearl millet, kafir corn, millo maize, sachaline and prickly 
comfrey. Among legumes, several kinds of vetch have been grown, 
but usually for cover crops and green manure, rather than for 
forage. Of these the winter vetch or hairy vetch, Vicia sativa, 
has given best results, being more certain for this purpose than 
crimson clover. The excessive cost of seed, however, has prevented 
its general use. ares and various other vetches, serradella, sain- 
foin, white and yellow lupine, velvet bean, sweet clover, have all 
proven inferior to more common legumes like red clover or Canada 
peas, or of use only under particular conditions. 
Among some of the grasses grown by the Station, a few have been 
found worthy of recommendation and are now more or less used 
for hay mixtures or on lawns. Among these are orchard grass, tall 
fescue, meadow fescue, sheep fescue, tall meadow oat grass and 
meadow foxtail. 
As with corn, the fertilizer tests on grass have given rather un- 
satisfactory results, but they show in general the value of light, 
repeated applications of easily soluble forms of nitrogen. In form 
of either nitrate of soda or cottonseed meal the spring applications 
of nitrogen have been profitable, but the other elements applied have 
not given increased yields sufficient to repay their cost. In storage 
of forage crops most attention has been given to silage and the 
possibility of securing a fair article of silage without using a special 
pit or silo was quite clearly indicated®® by some early work. It was 
also shown*! that silage would keep fairly well in a well-constructed 
silo, without tramping when filling in the cut forage and without 
special cover or pressure on the top after filling. However, the 
Station now fills its silos rapidly, with a man to spread material 
evenly and tramp it down somewhat, allows silage to settle for a 
week or more, then fills again, and may repeat this refilling opera- 
tion. In this way excellent silage is secured, and kept with a very 
small percentage of loss. 
° Rpts. 6:73-75 (1887) ; 7:326-331 (1888). 
“Rpts. 4:43-45 (1885) ; 6:37, 38 (1887). 
