1895.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 253 



past season, when lands which for years had been used for 

 .the production of Eiiiilish hay and corn were used for the 

 cultivation of southern cow-pea, serradella and a mixed crop 

 of oats and vetch, to serve as green fodder for milch cows. 



The field engaged for the production of these crops was 

 not manured, because it was to be prepared for a special field 

 experiment during the present season. An area of this land, 

 which, under favorable circumstances, would not produce 

 more than six tons of green grass at the time of blooming, 

 yielded nine to ten tons of green vetch and oats, ten tons of 

 green southern cow-pea and from twelve to thirteen tons of 

 green serradella. The exceptional exhaustion of our lands in 

 potash has been shown by detailed description of experiments 

 with fodder corn in previous annual reports. (Field A, 

 annual reports IV., V. and VI., 188G-88.) 



The results oljtained during past years tend to confirm the 

 opinion held by successful agriculturists, that dry grass lands 

 which ai'e in an exceptional degree inclined to a spontaneous 

 overgrowing by an inferior class of fodder plants and weeds, 

 if at all fit for a more thorough system of cultivation, ought 

 to be turned by the plough and subsequently planted with 

 some hoed crop, to kill off the foul growth and to improve 

 the physical and chemical condition of the soil. These lands 

 prove in many instances ultimately a far better investment 

 when used for the raising of other farm crops than grasses. 

 The less the variety of crops raised in succession upon the 

 same lands, the more one-sided is usually the exhaustion of 

 the soil, and the sooner, as a rule, will be noticed a decrease 

 in the annual yield. The introduction of a greater variety 

 of fodder plants enables us to meet better the differences in 

 local conditions of climate and of soil, as well as the special 

 wants of different branches of farm industry. In choosing 

 plants for that pur})ose it seems advisable to select crops 

 which would advantageously supplement our leading fodder 

 crop (aside from the products of pastures and meadows) , — 

 the fodder corn and corn stover. 



Taking this view of the question, the great and valuable 

 family of leguminous plants, as clovers, vetches, lucerne, 

 serradella, peas, beans, lupines, etc., is, in a particular 



