1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 159 



VII. Field Experiments with Prominent Fodder 

 Crops, to study Their Composition and Their 

 General Economical Value in our Section 

 of the Country. — Grasses and Leguiminous 

 Plants (Field B). 



The field here under discussion is located west of Field 

 A, described within some preceding pages. It occiapies an 

 area of one and seven-tenths acres. The land is nearly 

 level, and the soil consists of a sandy loam several feet deep. 



In 1884 the entire field was subdivided into eleven plats 

 of equal size, thirty-three by one hundred and seventy-five 

 feet, with five feet of space between them. Every alternate 

 plat has received from that date annually the same kind and 

 the same amount of fertilizer, — six hundred pounds of 

 ground bones and two hundred pounds of muriate of potash 

 per acre. Since 1885 all crops on that field have been raised 

 in rows ; this system of cultivation became a necessity in 

 the case of grasses, clovers, etc., to secure a clean crop for 

 observation. The rows, in the case of corn and leguminous 

 plants, were three feet and three inches apart ; and, in the 

 case of grasses, two feet. The space between the different 

 plats has received, thus far, no manurial substance of any 

 description, and is kept clean from vegetation by a proper 

 use of the cultivator. Plats 11, 13, 15, 17, 19 and 21 were 

 fertilized annually ; plats 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 have received 

 no fertilizer until the season of 1889, 



The details of the work carried on upon Field B are from 

 year to year recorded in the annual report of the station. 

 As the chemical analyses of the crops raised require con- 

 siderable time, on account of other contemporary pressing 

 engagements in the laboratory, they are usually published 

 in bulletins, and the reports of the succeeding 3ear. 



The subsequent tabular statement of crops raised upon 

 the differ-^nt plats of Field B since 1886 may assist in a 

 desirable understanding of its late history, and its condi- 

 tion at the beo-iunino; of the season of 1890. 



