1893.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 67 



The new crops thus far selected for that purpose are all 

 annual leguminous plants (clover family), as summer vetch, 

 Scotch tares, soja bean, serradella, horse bean and Southern 

 cow-pea. These crops can claim a higher nutritive value than 

 the grasses, and they yield in the majority of cases a larger 

 return per acre. They are readily and with advantage in- 

 troduced into most local systems of rotation, they tend to 

 increase materially the nitrogen resource of the soil they are 

 raised on in an economical way, besides improving the phys- 

 ical and chemical conditions of the soil in various directions. 



One of the principal aims in the cultivation of fodder crops 

 of every description ought to be an increase of their nitrogen 

 containing organic constituents as far as practical )le. This 

 result is of special interest in the dairy industry, for milch 

 cows, among full-grown animals, require an exceptionally 

 nutritious diet to do their best. 



No class of farm crops shows in a more marked degree the 

 influence of a liberal use of manure. Both the quantity 

 and quality of these crops are materially improved when 

 raised upon lands in a fair state of fertility. Exhausted 

 lands produce invariably an inferior quality of fodder crops 

 of its kind, as far as the amount of their nitroo-en-containinof 

 organic constituents is concerned. A liberal production of 

 nutritious annual fodder crops of the right kind improves 

 our chances of supporting more farm live stocJc, tends to in- 

 crease our supply of home-made manure, and ultimately 

 becomes the chief reliance of a remunerative mixed farm 

 industry. 



Our trials on a small scale with new fodder crops during 

 the past year include the following : — 



Summer vetch, Blue lupine, 



Soja bean, Yellow lupine, 



Bokhara clover, White lupine, 



Sanfoin, Silver- hull buckwheat. 



Horse bean, Japanese buckwheat, 



Cow-pea, Common buckwheat. 



Yellow trefoil. Summer rape, 



Serradella, Winter rape. 



Prickly comfrey. Artichoke (Jerusalem) , 



Flat-pea or Lathyris sylvestris, Sugar beet. 

 Kidney vetch, 



