184 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



is evidently needed to secure to the full extent and with cer- 

 tainty the economical advantages to be derived from the 

 raising of crops which are capaljle of converting, without 

 expense, the elementary nitrogen of the air into available 

 nitrogen })lant food. 



Our attention, as will be seen from preceding statements, 

 has been of late directed to the question whether 'perennial 

 leguminous crops, as our curre)it varieties of clovers, may 

 prove more satisfactory as nitrogen gatherers for general 

 farm purposes than annual leguminous crops, as soy bean, 

 lupines, etc. 



4. Mixed Annual Forage Crops v. Clovers (Field B). 



The importance of a more lil)eral and economical supply 

 of nutritious forage crops for the support of farm live stock 

 is quite generally recognized by all parties interested. 



Mixed forage crops, consisting of early-maturing annual 

 leguminous crops, clover-like plants and of either oats or 

 barley, suggested themselves for trial ; for they attain in our 

 locality a high feeding value at a comparatively early period 

 of the season, — towards the end of June when in bloom ; 

 they can serve with benefit in form of green fodder, hay or 

 ensilage, as circumstances advise ; they yield under fair con- 

 ditions large quantities of fodder of a highly nutritious char- 

 acter, and permit a timely reseediiig and maturing of a 

 second crop upon the same lands. 



The fields used for our earlier observations, in 1893-94, 

 were located in different parts of the fiirm. They were, as 

 a rule, in a fair state of cultivation, as far as the mechanical 

 condition of the soil as well as its store of plant food was 

 concerned. The soil consisted in the majority of cases of a 

 somewhat gravelly loam (see reports for 1893-94). 



The field used in the experiments, subsequently described 

 somewhat in detail, consisted of a light loam and was di- 

 vided into eleven plats of corresponding shape with four 

 feet of unoccupied space between them. It was used for the 

 cultivation of potatoes in preceding years. The plats had 

 received on that occasion in all cases the same amount and 

 form of nitrogen and phosphoric acid, in form of ground 

 bones, while the potash supply consisted in alternating 



