250 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



How can Forage Crops assist in improving the Productive- 

 ness of our Farm Lands ? 



The consideration of this important question claims the 

 serious attention of every thinking and progressive farmer, 

 for nobody questions the correctness of the view that a suc- 

 cessful termination of his work depends in a controlling 

 degree on a correct appreciation of the extent and character 

 of his resources of plant food and on a liberal and intelligent 

 use of the latter. 



An insufficient supply of suitable manurial matter, required 

 for the successful and liberal production of the crops to be 

 raised, is at present universally recognized as being the most 

 fatal circumstance in any system of farming for profit. 

 Adopting this conclusion as the correct verdict of past and 

 present experience in agricultural industries, it becomes most 

 desirable, in the interest of satisfactory pecuniary returns, 

 that every available manurial resource of the farm should be 

 turned to account to its full extent. To secuix this end we 

 are advised to begin the worh with a timely thorough mechani- 

 cal preparation of the soil under cultivation ; to select the 

 crops to be raised, as far as practicable, ivith reference to their 

 tendency of economizing existing natural resources of plant 

 food; to increase the latter to the full extent of suitable home- 

 made manure on hand, and to supplement the latter liberally by 

 buying commercial concentrated fodder articles and commercial 

 fertilizer, as far as circumstances advise. 



To again discuss * briefly one of the means of developing 

 and economizing manurial sources of the farm is the object 

 of this chapter. 



On Production and Selection of Fodder Crops. 



A careful inquiry into the history of agriculture, down to 

 the middle of the present century, has shown that the original 

 productiveness of farm lands in all civilized countries, even 

 in the most favored localities, has sufiercd in the course of 

 time a gradual decline. This general decline in the fertility 

 of the soil under cultivation has been ascribed, with much 



* See annual reports for 1889 (page 189) and 1890 (page 135) ; also Bulletin No. 36. 



