1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 523 



liberal amount of green fodder from the beginning of June 

 to the beginning of October. Their good services as green 

 fodder for milch cows during that period have been described 

 in the last annual report (1887, pages 35-48). Similar 

 results have been obtained in this direction during the past 

 season. The details of the feeding experiment form a part 

 of this report. 



The observations with reputed fodder crops have been 

 extended during the past year ; most of them were, how- 

 ever, raised on a small scale, to ascertain merely their 

 general character and their particular degree of adaptation 

 to our climate and soil, and to secure material for analysis, 

 to compare their relative proportions of essential nutritive 

 constituents. 



The fact, as has been stated before, that all these crops 

 are raised under corresponding conditions, as far as climate, 

 soil, modes of cultivation and of fertilization and particular 

 stages of growth are concerned, imparts to the results the 

 claim of an exceptional value to decide judiciously their 

 comparative merits. 



1888. — Field " C" comprises at present an area 328 feet 

 long and 183 feet wide. It was ploughed the previous fall, 

 and again April 26 ; it was harrowed soon after, and fertilized 

 broadcast at the rate of six hundred pounds of fine-ground 

 bones and two hundred pounds of muriate of potash per 

 acre. The field is divided into two parts, running from east 

 to west ; they are separated from each other by a passage- 

 way three feet wide. 



The northern half of the field is 70 feet wide and 328 feet 

 long; the southern half is of the same length, but 110 feet 

 wide. 



The latter is again sub-divided into three equal plats, 

 each 111 X 109 feet, or 11,990 square feet. The east end 

 of this field was planted with a mixture of vetch {vicia 

 sativa) and of oats (variety, western). The middle divis- 

 ion was planted the same day with serradella, and the 

 western with Southern cow-pea. Vetch and oats were 

 seeded broadcast, and serradella and Southern cow-pea in 

 drills, three feet three inches apart. The northern half of 

 field "C" was occupied by a series of crops in rows, 



