GUAM AGEICULTUEAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 21 



Much of the soy-bean seed distributed went to persons who intended 

 to grow the crop for eating purposes. 



The increased interest of the natives in forage crops augurs welL 

 The coming wet season will find many acres of low, unused land pro- 

 ducing Para and Paspalum grasses and annual forage crops of 

 diit'erent kinds. 



SOIL TESTS WITH PASPALUM DILATATUM. 



The experiment for determining the adaptability to different soils 

 of the valuable introduced pasture grass, Paspalum dilatatum, was 

 greatly extended during the year (PL IV, fig. 2.) Some of the grass 

 was planted on poorly drained, exceptionally heavy clays, some on 

 medium high clay soils, and still other on hillsides where outcrop- 

 ping rock and cascajo formed the principal part of the surface. 

 Although the past dry season lasted at least a month longer than 

 usual and much of the grass to all outward appearances was dead, 

 jet the few light showers that came near the end of the year caused 

 the grass tufts to again become green on all soil types. 



While the grass planting of the past fiscal year was not finished 

 until about October 1, some deductions may safely be drawn from 

 the experiment. Paspalum has a wide range of usefulness and gives 

 much more pasture, even on the poorer, rocky soils, than the native 

 grasses give. It is true that during about three months of an ex- 

 tremely dry season Paspalum did not give much pasture, but at that 

 time the native pastures were so dried that they could be burned. 

 The principal good coming from Paspalum on any soil is the large 

 amount of pasture that it gives during nine months of the year. 

 On the better soils it will support from two to three times as many 

 cattle as the native grasses. There is little doubt that a good stand 

 can be obtained on the poorest soils or on the undrained soils if the 

 roots are planted close together. In this particular it should be 

 noted that on the undrained soils Para grass appears to give the 

 largest yields both for pasture and for soiling purposes. All evidence 

 goes to show that on the poorer soils extreme care is necessary, since 

 too heavy pasturing will destroy the stand. 



Some interesting data were obtained on the cost of planting Pas- 

 palum. Considering all expenses, including plowing and otherwise 

 preparing the soil, hauling and setting the roots, the cost of planting 

 per acre was about $16. This cost covers plowing at $7.50 per acre 

 (the lowest price that the station has ever paid), disking the fields 

 twice at $1, and digging out, hauling, and planting the roots at 

 $7.50 per acre. A^liile the amount seems large, the increased amount 

 of pasture now furnished by the station's Paspalum fields is strong 

 evidence that it is a paying proposition. 



