6 Experiment Station Report. 



tion with a careful examination of the drainage waters pass- 

 ing out. 



Arrangements have been made to study the effect of com- 

 mercial fertilizers, — compounded at the station, — on the 

 quantity and the quality of the crops grown by their aid, as 

 compared, in both directions, with the growth of the same 

 plants upon unfertilized lands of a corresponding soil. Four 

 standard grasses, two millets and one reputed variety of 

 corn, are included in that trial. The mode of operation and 

 the first year's results form part of the enclosed report. 



Some field observations have been instituted to study the 

 specific action of different forms of potassa — muriate and 

 sulphate — on the character of the crops raised under their 

 influence. Besides various kinds of small fiiiits, fruit trees, 

 etc., a prominent crop, the potato, has been selected for that 

 purpose. 



Six reputed forage crops, vetch, serradilla, white lupine, 

 horse bean, common lucerne, and sand lucerne, belonging to 

 the valuable family of farm plants of which the clover is a con- 

 spicuous representative — Leguminosoe — have been planted 

 with a view to study their adaptability to our climate, and 

 eventually to incriease our chances for raising a greater va- 

 riety of nutritious fodder for farm live stock. 



Many of these experiments will require years of close 

 observation before reliable deductions can be safely drawn 

 from the results obtained from them, — features more or less 

 common to all field experiments, — a good argument in favor 

 of an early beginning of the work. 



The products of the garden and the orchard have received 

 their share of attention. The work undertaken in these 

 important branches of agricultural industry proposes to as- 

 certain the quality, and the relative and absolute quantity, of 

 mineral constituents of prominent fruits and garden crops. 

 A more reliable information in that direction will secure for 

 us a careful basis for special fertilization, and thereby a more 

 rational mode of their cultivation. The results presented in 

 this connection have been greatly increased by a series of 

 valuable contributions of Prof. S. T. Maynard : observations 

 in regard to insects injurious to the apple ; notes upon in- 

 sects injurious to farm and garden crops ; on the causes of 



