1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 173 



received from the various varieties of lupines, white, yellow 

 and blue, consists in their fitness for green manuring - . The 

 plant grows rapidly, is succulent, and comparatively rich in 

 nitrogenous matter. The crop can be ploughed under with 

 profit in the beginning of August. The disintegration of 

 the plant has usually sufficiently advanced at the beginning 

 of September to render the soil fit for thorough mechanical 

 preparation, preparatory to the seeding down of grasses or 

 of winter crops. 



Serradella ( Ornitkopus sativus). — The successful cultiva- 

 tion of this valuable fodder crop depends, in our part of the 

 countiy, apparently in exceptional degrees, on the character 

 of the soil and the season. A deep, sandy loam, and a fair 

 average temperature of the summer season, tend to secure 

 success. Under favorable circumstances we have obtained 

 from ten to twelve tons of green fodder, with an average 

 percentage of dry matter of from nineteen to twenty per 

 cent. Fed green from the beginning to the end of Sep- 

 tember, 1887 and 1889, at the rate of seventy to eighty 

 pounds per day, with one-quarter of the ordinary English 

 hay ration (five pounds), the result has been in an excep- 

 tional degree satisfactory. Serradella has surpassed in our 

 case the effect of Southern cow-pea and vetch and oats, as a 

 green fodder for dairy cows. It competes fairly with soja 

 bean in that connection. Cold and wet summer seasons, 

 and cold, springy lands, each in their own way interfere seri- 

 ously with a timely vigorous growth, and thus with the pro- 

 duction of a remunerative crop. Our trial with this crop 

 during the late season has been a failure, on account of the 

 springy character of the land selected for its cultivation. 



BokJiara Clover (Melilotus alba) and Sainfoin (Ono- 

 brycltis saliva, — Esjiarsette) are already described in previ- 

 ous pages (Field B). The bulky, heavy growth of the 

 Bokhara clover, and its pleasant odor, resembling somewhat 

 that of the sweet vernal grass (Anthoxanlhum odoratum) , 

 render it desirable to institute experiments for the purpose 

 of ascertaining its fitness for ensilage. Its stems are succu- 

 lent at the time when the plant has reached its full height 

 (four to four and one-half feet). Our locality is evidently 

 too cold to render the cultivation of sainfoin advisable. 



