No. 4.] GRASSES AND FORAGE CROPS. 199 



in securing nitrogen from the air do not seem to exist natu- 

 rally in our soils. Whenever we have grown the crop on 

 new soil, light yields of pale yellow forage have always re- 

 sulted unless we have taken the precaution to inoculate the 

 soil from a field where soja beans had been previously 

 grown, and where the nodules had existed upon the roots. 

 The presence of these little nodules or root tubercles is 

 directly associated with the acquisition of the atmospheric 

 nitrogen, and wherever these root nodules are absent, practi- 

 cally no nitrogen is taken from the air. At first thought it 

 may seem like a difficult matter to inoculate a large field ; 

 but experiments have shown that, where about 1,000 pounds 

 per acre of the soil which contains the proper germs are 

 sifted into the drill with the seed, the root nodules will ap- 

 pear in abundance by the time the plants are six inches high. 

 Barley and Peas. — It is often desirable to have a forage 

 crop suitable for soiling or for pasturage late in the fall, 

 when our ordinary pastures give but little feed. One of 

 the best crops for this purpose is a mixture of barley and 

 peas. This crop can be fed throughout the entire month of 

 October, and will often remain green and succulent well 

 into November. The crop needs to be sown as early as the 

 first of August. The peas should be ploughed under, while 

 the barley should be sown on the surface, and carefully har- 

 rowed in a few days later. Owing to the difficulty in drying 

 the crop during the short days of the fall, it is not a good 

 crop to use for making into hay. Many fields which have 

 grown a crop of rye or oats might be sown to this crop 

 immediately after the first crop is harvested. The barley 

 and peas would serve the double purpose of keeping the 

 . land occupied and preventing the waste of nitrogen, and 

 also provide a considerable amount of forage. If not 

 wanted for feeding green, the crop could be pastured with 

 good results. 



Effect of Nitrogenous Fertilizers ox Grasses and 



Other Fodder Crops. 



One of the first lines of work undertaken by the Storrs 



Station after its organization in 1888 was a study, by means 



of field experiments, of the effect of nitrogenous fertilizers 



