— 5 — 
probably without any knowledge of the experience and ob¬ 
servations of European growers. The accordance between 
them and those recorded in this report is remarkable, and 
goes tar to show that the general methods of culture in 
vogue now have been practiced in all essential features for 
centuries, and are probably the best admitting of general 
application. 
The variations in culture methods are slight, though the 
accounts given embrace a large variety of soils and climate, 
and the plant is claimed to meet the requirements of an ex¬ 
cellent forage plant under all of them, indicating its adapta¬ 
bility to very varied conditions. The most trying and most 
fatal conditions to this plant are cold, wet winters and 
poorly drained or water-logged soils. It has long been ob¬ 
served that stagnant water has a very injurious effect upon 
this plant, destroying its roots, an observation that Colora¬ 
doans have many opportunities of repeating. The writer 
has seen plants with roots entirely destroyed to within a few 
inches of the. crown, though still producing some growth, 
and others killed by soils being filled up with irrigation or 
perhaps seepage water. In the case here referred to the soil 
was strongly impregnated with alkali; these salts contributed 
to the effect produced,but I think that the plants would have 
simply drowned out had there been no alkali. There are 
many instances of this to be observed throughout the irri¬ 
gated portions of the state where depressions in the surface 
become partially filled with water. The principal points 
given for its culture are, a well prepared seed bed, “ fresh 
and plump seed to be covered from “very lightly” to 
“three inches deep,” according to different observers, and 
varying with the climate and soil. In California and Colo¬ 
rado,, and generally in the West, the customary practice is 
to drill in the seed with a protective crop. I have neither 
seen nor learned of drill culture being practiced except on 
a small scale. 
In regard to the seed, some assert that two years old 
seed is scarcely worth the sowing, and others are quite rad¬ 
ical in their statements as to the value of shrunken or 
shrivelled seed. 1 he writer will give his reasons for refus¬ 
ing to accept either of these statements under the subject 
of “Seed.” It may not be a general practice for our farm¬ 
ers.to sell their first-class seed and use the screenings for 
their own sowing, but it is certainly not an uncommon prac¬ 
tice among them, and the results are satisfactory. It is even 
claimed by some that no difference can be seen in the re¬ 
sults, the screenings producing just as good a stand of 
healthy plants as the first-class seed. The meaning of the 
