1897. J PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 21 



in yield this year may be due to the fact that considerable 

 avaihible plant food which was locked up in the rye has not 

 yet by the decay of the vegetable matter of this crop be- 

 come again available. If this be the true explanation, then 

 in the next year the beneficial eifect of the green manuring 

 should become apparent. 



On the acre where ^^ sjjecial" corn fertilizer has been 

 under comparison with fertilizer richer in jjotash some crop 

 of tJie clover family has been sown in the standing corn each 

 year since 1893 ; but the crops themselves have been under 

 trial, and have not shoAvn themselves fitted for the purpose 

 in view. Thus, in 1893 and 1894 crimson clover was tried, 

 but each following spring the crop was killed and the results 

 were unimportant. In July, 189e5, siveet clover {Melilotus 

 alba) was sown upon one quarter and common red clover 

 upon another. The siveet clover was badly thrown out by 

 the frost, and hardly a plant survived ; while the red clover 

 starts too late in spring to have made much growth before 

 it must 1)6 turned in. The results are unimportant in both 

 cases, though the crop this year is somewhat greater where 

 the red clover was sown, viz., at the rate of 55.25 bushels 

 per acre, against 52.75 bushels where no clover was sown. 



Variety Tests. 

 1. Potaioefi. 



In the spring of 1895 we procured as far as possible seed 

 of all prominent and new varieties of potatoes, necessarily 

 from widely scattered and very different sources. This seed 

 was planted for the purpose of raising under like conditions 

 a stock of the difterent sorts, which, having been produced 

 under identical conditions and in every respect handled 

 alike, it was thought would he suited for a comparative test 

 of varieties. Sixty varieties, the seed of which (in every 

 instance save one) was raised upon our own grounds last 

 season, have been made the subject of such a comparative 

 trial this year. The variety the seed of which was from 

 another source is Carman No. 1. Our seed of this sort 

 raised last 3^ear was accidentally destroyed, and, as the 

 variety is a prominent one, it was thought best to pro- 



