New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. ; 67 
i 
a _ This steady decline in the hay crop has gone on, in part, no doubt, a 
_ from the fact that the average farmer uses his manure on the culti- 
___ vated crops, which the hay crop has thus been regularly contributing 
i to support, while itself neglected. Not only is the value greater, but 
_ the acreage of this crop stands to that of all the others as 55 to 45. 
This showing does not include pasture grass, which supports almost 
Fe the whole of our dairy, sheep and growing stock about half the year, 
i and is second to no other than the hay crop itself, if indeed it is second 
tb in value to that. 
. It seems desirable that some special attention be given to improved 
methods of culture to finding out the best species for hay and grazing, 
and finally, for diffusing a better knowledge of some of the forage 
species of this great family of useful plants. 
M % 
Station Work witH GRrRassEs. 
Our annual reports show there has been an interest in grass cultiva- | 
: tion ever since the Station was organized. A large number of plats 
¢ were early sown with the most valuable grasses known to cultivators 
‘ and others which though not» known to be valuable may be worthy of 
4 - cultivation. All these plats have been continued and additions made 
i nearly every year. In 1884-5 many root washings were made. 
j _ [See annual reports for those years. ] 
4 In the years 1888 and 1889 these variety grass plats were supple- 
4 mented by fertilizer plats, occupying some two and one-half acres in 
f the former and three and one-half in the latter season, exclusive of 
_ the paths and alleys separating the plats. The object of these sup- 
plementary plats was to make a soil test and learn what class of fer- 
tilizers could be used to advantage in top dressing for the hay crop. 
There were tried chemical salts, bone black, Canada ashes, stable 
4 manure, wheat bran and cottonseed meal, and the resulting crops 
_. shows unmistakably that on this farm some of them could be profit- 
ably used. The past summer the special work with grass has been 
the collection of samples of grass at several stages of growth for 
analysis and comparisons. 
First. As to what stage of growth is the best time to cut grass in. 
order to secure the most and best quality of hay. 
Second. Which grasses should be cultivated under the light of this 
investigation? That is, how do grasses compare in yield of nutritive 
substance under the like conditions of soil and climate to which they 
_ have been subjected. 
It has been shown that the same grass may vary widely in its 
chemical composition as well as in the amount of crop it is capable of 
