Horse beans are rich in protein and promise to rank well with plants of that class 

 as forage crops. They have the ability, like most legumes, to gather nitrogen from 

 the air, and consequently do not exhaust the soil of that element. At the present 

 time, however, when the price of nitrogenous feeds, like gluten meal and cotton- 

 seed meal, is so low, it is a question whether it is not more profitable for a farmer to 

 give his attention largely to growing corn for coarse fodders and to buy nitrogenous 

 feeds to balance up the ration. 



RESULTS OF WORK WITH SUNFLOWERS IN VERMONT. 



Sunflowers were grown at the Vermont Agricultural Experiment 

 Station in 1893. The number of pounds of green fodder harvested 

 per acre was 11,350, consisting of 8,612 pounds of water and 2,738 

 pounds of dry matter. The dry matter consisted of the following 

 substances in pounds: 



Crude ash 205 



Crude protein 485 



Crude fiber 642 



Soluble carbohydrates 799 



Ether extract 607 



Nitrogen 78 



Phosphoric acid 22 



Potash 68 



In connection with the analyses the following remark is made: 



These plants were grown to furnish a portion of the fat for the Robertson mixture 

 ensilage. The heads only were used, and it will be seen that nearly a ton and a half 

 of dry matter and over 600 pounds of fat per acre were produced. The stalks, as 

 shown by the analysis, are too woody for use. 



The composition of the Robertson mixture ensilage is given in the 

 eighth annual report of the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station 

 for 1894, as indicated in the following table: 



Average analyses of certain ensilage crops as harvested and as fed. 



