65 



under various conditions were accurately determined. Reporting 

 upon it, Mr. Shutt observes that the safest storehouse for manure 

 is the soil, and he unhesitatingly says that the farmer who 

 gets his manure while still fresh into the soil returns to it for the 

 future use of his crops much more plant food than he would if he 

 allowed the manure to accumulate in piles that receive little or no 

 care, and which therefore must waste by excessive fermentation 

 or leaching or both. 



FODDER CROPS. 



An exhaustive study by the aid of chemistry has been made 

 of native and introduced grasses with a view to learning their 

 relative feeding value and also at what stage of growth they 

 should be cut in order to yield the best food for stock. In the 

 majority of cases it was brought out that there was a marked deterio- 

 ration during the later stages of the plant's growth, pointing to the 

 desirability of cutting before the seed approaches the ripened condition. 

 Many native grasses from the prairie were shown to possess highly 

 nutritive properties, and these good qualities remain in the grasses 

 cured naturally on the stem. 



Much work extending over several seasons has been done with 

 Indian corn as grown for fodder. A knowledge was gained of the 

 changes in food value that take place at various stages in the plant's 

 growth. The effect of sowing broadcast and in hills and in drills 

 at different rates of seeding was also ascertained. This work has 

 shown the folly of growing varieties that do not reach the glazing 

 stage before frost comes in the autumn, and also in planting so thickly 

 as to interfere with the full development of each individual plant. 



In much the same manner the life history of rape, sugar beets 

 and other crops has been followed up, sometimes with the view to 

 tracing the feeding value at various stages of growth; at others, 

 to ascertain the extent to which the crop exhausts the land, which 

 might afford information for a rational treatment of the soil with 

 regard to manures. 



NEW WHEATS. 



The Chemical Division has worked hand in hand with the 



Cereal Division in its investigations towards the development of 



new improved grains. New cross-bred wheats have been subjected 



to chemical and physical analyses, with the view of tracing from 



32880-5 



