297 



the Saciameuto River lands parties have cut two crops the first sea-soii, and it certainly 

 can be done in some localities, when sown in the fiill before the rains coniinence, and 

 then followed f)y a warm winter. 



With reo'ard to making seed, I have letters from individuals living in the coast 

 counties of this State, which inform me that within the fog belt, (a distance from the 

 coast of 25 or IJO miles,) alfalfa does not make lunch seed, for the reason that the moist 

 atmosphere induces a continuous growth of the stock, which thereby lodj^es badly. 

 They speak of it as blooming, but the seed-forms do not fill. When sown thick it does 

 not seed well here, but makes better hay and much better i)asturage. 



All the foregoing applies especially to California, and I may be asked whether, in my 

 opinion, it would grow and do well in any of the Atlantic or Gulf States. I am fully 

 of the opinion that it will do very well in any of the Southern States. In Mississippi 

 and Louisiana, where I lived many years ago, I have the utmost confidence that it will 

 do as well as here for grazing ov soiling purposes ; but as it would make a heavy 

 growth, and as it cures slowly^ it might be difficult to save it as hay in a climate where 

 rain falls during the summer mouths. 



I am satisfied that upon all the river bottoms and the cane-uplands it would take 

 most readily, and yield in feed many times that of any grass cultivated there twenty 

 years ago. It would have all the qualities of the Bermuda grass, which prevents 

 washing off of the soil on the hill-lands, and a yield of feed astonishingly greater. I 

 have sent small parcels of seed for trial to Tennessee, Illinois, Ohio, and Maryland, one 

 each. From the latter only have I received any report. Richard Deauer, living near 

 Keedysville, writes that it grew finely during the past summer, but that the frosts had 

 cut it down to the ground. So I have seen it here ; but the cold weather over, and a 

 few days of warm sunshine, the fields are green again. My fields were cut down by 

 frost last December, but now (February 10) the growth is one foot in height. 



It has one grave fault, common, however, to all clover with which I have had any- 

 thing to do ; that is, when growing very rapidly, if cattle fill themselves with it 

 quickly it gives them the hoove, or coli«. This, probably, is caused by the rapid gen- 

 eration of gas in the rumen. I have not known it to affect other stock than cattle and 

 sheep, and the latter in but few instances. When grazed closely it has no bad eft'ect 

 on any stock, not even that which other clovers have in some seasons of the year, viz., 

 salivation. I have not seen the least sign of it in my experience. 



You may have seen from the many notices in the California papers that it is becom- 

 iag one of the prominent interests with the farmers here. The quotations of prices, 

 wholesale, of seed in San Francisco, as may be seen in the pa^Ders, are from 15 to 17 

 cents per pound. My whole cro^) of seed is exhausted, before the season for sowing. 

 I estimate that there will be over 10,000 acres sown in California this year. 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS.* 



The utterances of Professor Liebig in 1840 created a general convic- 

 tion tliat chemistry must become the basis of agriculture. From general 

 science a sufiBciently thorough and active furtherance of agricultural 

 chemistry could not be expected; special institutions appeared neces- 

 sary, in which chemical inquiries, with experiments in garden, field, and 

 stable, could be connected with observations on vegetation and feeding, 

 not on a small scale only, but also on large agricultural fields. The 

 question of manures was the starting-point of scientific investigation, 

 but this has now become secondary. ''After chemical investigation, 

 with its exact evidence, had found a secure foothold in the sphere of the 

 nutrition of plants, it extended its efforts in a remarkably short time to 

 an analysis of the soil, of animal and vegetable life, and of agricultural 

 technic."t 



In Germany the existing agricultural colleges took up the question of 

 agricultural chemistry, and teachers like Stceckhardt, Sprengel, and 

 Keckerlin, and others, attained early success in the experimental field. 

 All these agricultural institutions in Prussia were furnished with gar- 



* Prepared at the request of the Commissioner of Agriculture, by A. W. Angerer. 

 t Quotation from ''The soil and agricultural condition of Prussia," page 547, article 

 on Agricultural Experimental Stations, by Dr. A. Meitzen; Berlin, 1871. 



