ANNUAL REPORT, 1934 9 



Rural Electric Survey. (C. I. Gunness.) During the past year a survey of the 

 use of electricity on farms has been carried on. Records were obtained on 7131 

 farms or approximately one-half of the farms in the State now having electric 

 service. A classification of these farms indicates that the so-called general farm 

 uses 980 kilowatt-hours per year, the poultry farm 1480 kilowatt-hours, and the 

 dairy farm 1726 kilowatt-hours. The average annual consumption on all farms 

 is 1303 kilowatt-hours. 



A detailed study was made of 1563 farms having at least 5 cows, or 100 hens, or a 

 fruit or general business which would make them qualify as real farms. The use 

 of current on these farms has increased from 976 kilowatt-hours in 1929 to 1735 

 kilowatt-hours in 1933. About 24 per cent of the dairy farms in this group are 

 equipped with milking machines, and 30 per cent with electric milk coolers. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY 



Walter S. Eisenmenger in Charge 



Pasture Experiments. (A. B. Beaumont.) Lime and complete fertilizer were 

 applied to permanent pasture plots in Worcester County in the fall of 1933 and 

 spring of 1934. No yields were taken, but observations showed the usual marked 

 response to nitrogen, potash, and lime. The response to potash was particularly 

 outstanding in the latter part of the season, due to the abundance of white clover. 



Since 1930 a test of the more important nitrogen fertilizers has been conducted 

 on a strongly acid, depleted, upland pasture soil in Amherst. Judged by yield of 

 grass, calcium nitrate and sodium nitrate have been distinctly superior to ammo- 

 nium sulfate, ammonium chloride, calcium cyanamide, and urea when applied 

 in addition to lime, phosphoric acid, and potash. 



Legume Variety Tests. (A. B. Beaumont.) Cooperative tests of varieties of 

 miscellaneous legumes were terminated in 1934 by the disastrous effects of the 

 extremely cold winter of 1933-34. Seedings of alfalfa varieties ranging in age 

 from one to five years were 90 to 100 percent killed. The injury appears to have 

 been due primarily to the formation of an extensive ice sheet which persisted for 

 a long enough time to smother the plants. There was little or no relation between 

 killing and variety, but Hardigan showed somewhat more resistance to this condi- 

 tion than did other varieties. 



Results of tests of varieties of soybeans were published in 1934 as Bulletin 309, 

 entitled "Soybeans for Massachusetts." Results of tests of other legumes will 

 be published in detail by the Bureau of Plant Industry of the U. S. D. A., which 

 cooperated in the work. Since publication will be delayed somewhat, the following 

 brief summary is given. 



Alfalfa. Twenty-one varieties from many domestic and foreign sources were 

 tested. The oldest seeding was 5 years old when terminated. During this period 

 yield of varieties did not appear to be associated definitely with the latitudinal 

 source of seed nor with factors commonly accepted as indicating hardiness, such 

 as variegation of the blossoms. Hardigan was the most consistently high-yielding 

 variety, but the yield of Grimm was about the average of the various lots tested. 

 Both of these varieties have variegated blossoms. With the exception of common 

 alfalfas from California, which were consistently among the lowest producers, 

 all strains of common alfalfa, including those from Dakota, Kansas, Utah, Okla- 

 homa, and New Mexico, were quite satisfactory and gave average or better than 



