112 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. fJan. 



Part I. 

 REPORT ON FIELD EXPERIMENTS. 



CHARLES A. GOESSMANN. 



1. Field Experlvients carried on for the Purpose of 

 studying the effect of a liberal introduction 

 OF Clover-like Plants — Leguminous Crops — 

 INTO Farm Practice, as a Means of increasing 

 THE Resources of Available Nitrogen Plant 

 Food in the Soil under Cultivation. (Field A.) 



The observation of the fact that the different varieties of 

 clover and of clover-like plants in general, as peas, beans, 

 vetches, lupines, etc., are in an exceptional degree qualified, 

 under favorable conditions, to convert, by the aid of certain 

 micro-organisms of the soil, the elementary nitrogen of the 

 air into plant food, imparts to that class of farm crops a 

 special interest from an economical standpoint. This cir- 

 cumstance is in a controlling degree due to the two follow- 

 ing causes : — 



First. — The nitrogen-containing soil constituents of plant 

 food are as a rule in a high degree liable to suffer serious 

 changes in rerard to their character and fitness as well as in 

 reference to their quantity. 



Second. — Availal)le nitrogen-furnishing manurial sub- 

 stances are the most costly articles of plant food in our 

 markets. 



Field experiments which propose to show by their results 

 to what extent the cultivation of clover-like plants can be 

 relied on as a practical and economical means for securing 

 efficiently nitrogen plant food for the crops to be raised have 



