12 



The millets, Panicum cms galU and miliaceum, have had a more 

 extended trial this season as crops for green fodder and ensilage. 

 The first proves much the more valuable of the two. It grows 

 quickly and gives yields of 10 to 14 tons per acre. That ensilaged 

 last year made excellent silage, a sample of which was sent to the 

 laboratorj' .for analysis. The results are not yet received. This 

 year both these millets were sown June 12, after a crop of rye 

 had been removed. They were put into the silo September 18 and 

 19, in alternate layers with soya beans. 



We have cultivated in small amounts some twenty varieties of 

 soya and other Japanese beans the past season, but these are not 

 yet all harvested. It is thought that the early white and the me- 

 dium green and black varieties first cultivated here will prove as 

 valuable as any. The first gives a fine yield of seed. The others 

 have ripened perfectly for the last five years, but are a little late 

 for this section. They appear to be valua,ble varieties for fodder 

 or for ensilage. 



The appearance of tubercles which are known to be connected 

 with the assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen upon the roots of 

 some varieties under cultivation last year and not upon others led 

 us to undertake investigations to determine the causes of this dif- 

 ference. A crop with these tubercles upon its roots can take free 

 nitrogen from the air, but without them it is powerless to do so ; 

 hence the interest of the inquiry. A large number of plats in dif- 

 ferent localities, a number of pots of plants and several varieties 

 of beans have been under cultivation for the purposes of this 

 study, but our work is not suiliciently advanced to enable me to 

 report. 



The possibility of raising good seed of Canada and other field 

 peas and of spring vetches has been tested with favorable results 

 for the peas and unfavorable for the vetches. The peas can 

 be raised for much less than the usual market price of such 

 seed. 



The experiment for the comparison of fertilizers with manures 

 as top-dressing for grass lands has been continued, this being 

 the fourth year. There have been seven half-acre plats and three 

 quarter-acre plats. Three plats have received an application in 

 early spring of a mixture of bone meal, muriate of potash and nitrate 

 of soda, in amounts varying on the different plats as follows : Bone 

 meal, 300 to 400 pounds ; muriate of potash, 160 pounds in all cases, 

 and nitrate of soda, 150 to 200 pounds. Four plats were top- 

 dressed with good manure at the rate of 3 cords per acre. Three 

 plats received nothing and have received nothing for four years. 



