of the former. There is good reason to assume that the low state 

 of productiveness of many of our farms, so often complained of, is 

 largely due to the fact that crops have been raised in succession for 

 years, which, like those mentioned, have consumed one or the other 

 essential article of plant food in an exceptionally large proportion, 

 and thereby have gradually unfitted the soil for their remunerative 

 production, while a liberal supply of other important articles of plant 

 food is left inactive behind. As the amount of available plant food 

 contained in the soil represents largely the working capital of the 

 farmer, it cannot be otherwise but that the practice of allowing a 

 part of it to lay idle, must reduce the interest on the investment. 



Our personal observation upon the lands assigned for the use of 

 the Station has furnished abundant illustration of the above described 

 condition of farm lands. In one instance it was noticed that a piece 

 of old worn out grass land, after being turned under and properly 

 prepared, as far as the mechanical condition of the soil was con- 

 cerned, produced, without any previous application of manure, an 

 exceptionally large crop of horsebeaus and lupine — two reputed fod- 

 der crops. A similar observation was made during the past season, 

 vrhen lands which for years had been used for the production of Eng- 

 lish 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 9 to 10 

 tons of green vetch and oats ; 10 tons of green southern cowpea ; and 

 from 12 to 13 tons of green serradella. The exceptional exhaustion 

 of our lands in potash has been shown b}' detailed description of ex- 

 periments with fodder corn in previous annual reports. 



The results obtained during past years tend to confirm the opinion 

 held by successful agriculturists that dry grass lands which are in an 

 exceptional degree inclined to a spontaneous overgrowing by an infe- 

 rior 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 subse- 

 quently 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 



