Although this vicinity suffered with drouth, the rainfall was inches more than last year-June, July, and August below the average. The year

has been remarkable for drouth, excessive snow storms, and high winds, snow fall for January being 29.6 inches, and the greatest rainfall, May, 6.8 inches; coldest day, January 8th, mean temperature, 16.3° below zero; highest temperature, Aug. 15th, 102°. The whole range of temperature has been 124°, with a yearly mean of 51°-last year 49°-showing the lowest mean to be 48.5°, and the highest 52.8, for a period of 8 years. The drouth in July was followed by extreme heat in August. September opened hot and dry, followed by local rains about the middle of the month. October brought cooler weather, and early in November winter set in with fierce storms of wind and snow. The summer nights were made beautiful by the planets Jupiter, Mars, Uranus, and Venus grouping in the western heavens. This has been a year of extremes: while the martins arrived April 13th, the wild geese were flying southward as late as 29th December.

Respectfully,

GEORGE D. CARRINGTON.

ANOTHER YEAR'S STUDY OF OUR FORAGE PLANTS.

BY CHARLES E. BESSEY, PH.D., DEAN OF THE INDUSTRIAL COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA.

During the year which has just gone by since my last address before this society upon the subject of the grasses, I have devoted a good deal of time to the study of the problem of the best forage plants for this portion of the great plains. When we remember that this state is mostly given to stock growing, and that there is more money invested in this business than in any other department of agriculture, it becomes evident that a discussion of forage plants is eminently a proper one before such a body as this. What shall our sheep, horses, and cattle feed upon, is the great question the proper an swer to which involves millions of dollars. If, as the wild grasses disappear, as disappear they will, we are not able to replace them with those which will be reasonably permanent, the growing of stock will. cease to be the great and profitable industry it now is. To avert such a calamity may well take the time and some of the energy and power of this society.

In my address a year ago I confined my remarks to the grasses alone, and urged the use of Blue Grass for pasture and Timothy for hay, directing attention also to Orchard Grass, Red Top, and a few wild grasses. In this paper I shall enlarge the scope of the subject so as to allow the discussion of the clovers, and of some other plants which are of more or less value as forage, believing that even in the food of our domestic animals we should study to secure a considerable variety, just as we do in our own food. Upon this point I should like to pause a moment and urge that greater attention be given to it. The need is particularly great in the winter, when too often the poor ox is compelled to feed upon the dried leaves and stems of but one

kind of plant. We know from experience in our own cases that a continuous diet of but one thing, even if it be of the very best food, will after a while become positively distasteful; how much more so is it when the food is of rather indifferent quality? Those of us who have had the misfortune of eating month after month at the tables of a boarding house ought to have a sort of fellow feeling for these dumb brutes of ours. I have no doubt that they often feel just as we used to, when, after a dreary sameness of meat and potatoes, meat and potatoes, meat and potatoes, for week after week and month after month, our stomachs have risen up in rebellion, and we have turned disgustedly away from our untasted breakfast. "Variety is the spice of life," says the old proverb, and our experience justifies it in our own lives. Let us remember that it may be justified also by an observation of our domestic animals.

In dividing my paper into several heads, I shall notice (1) grasses proper, (2) clovers, and (3) other forage plants.

I. GRASSES.

I shall confine myself to some notes upon the grasses I discussed more fully a year ago, adding such facts as have appeared since then, or modifying the statements then made as the experience of the year demands.

Timothy (Phleum pratense).—All the testimony and experience of the year show that the high place given to Timothy as a grass to be depended upon for hay is deserved by it. Its range throughout the state appears to be gradually increasing, as farmers are learning more and more of it by experience. There cannot now be any reasonable doubt as to the possibility of growing excellent fields of Timothy in almost any part of the state which is fit for any kind of cultivation. To its excellent qualities, viz., ease of propagation, ease of cutting, ease of curing and handling, palatability and nutritiousness, which render it so deservedly popular, must now be added another for special situations. At the recent meeting of the Nebraska Dairymen's Association, the Hon. William G. Whitmore, of Douglas county, called attention to the fact that upon the alluvial soil of the Platte valley he had found Timothy to be one of the best of pasture grasses.

This was corroborated by the well known stock grower of Fort Dodge, Iowa, the Hon. L. S. Coffin, who testified that upon certain soils Timothy has been found by him to endure pasturage most excellently. This is so at variance with the usual experience hitherto, that I deem it important that a record of it be made in this place. I saw Mr. Whitmore's field myself a few weeks ago, and it had then every appearance of being able to endure six or eight more years of cropping and tramping of cattle, as it has already done. It must be clearly understood that this field lies on the flat land bordering the Platte, and it is doubtful whether such experience could be duplicated on the higher land of the plains, but even if its valuable qualities for pasture should be confined to our river bottoms, that for the whole state will in the aggregate amount to a great many thousand acres. May I not ask of you, the members of this state society, that you make notes and experiments upon this point, and I shall esteem it as a great favor if you will communicate your results to me for collation and comparison.

Blue Grass (Poa pratensis).—I need say but little as to the esteem in which this grass is deservedly held for pasturage. It is every year being more widely sown, the acreage to-day being without doubt many thousands of acres greater than it was a year ago. Several points of a great deal of importance have been brought out by observation, correspondence, and discussion. They are as follows:

1. Much of the seed offered in the market is imperfect, and will not germinate. Whenever Blue Grass seed has any mustiness of smell it indicates that it has been cured under unfavorable conditions, and that in all probability it has been heated up to such a degree as to destroy its power of germination.

2. In sowing Blue Grass seed the plan of compacting the soil by heavy rolling or by the treading and tramping of cattle (as recommended by Dr. Gordon, of Tennessee) is found to produce most satisfactory results in the loose soil of Nebraska. Our light soil dries out so easily for the first inch or so that the minute seed of Blue Grass, which of necessity must be near the surface, are themselves dried up. Even when they make a start, a few days of dry weather will often wither up the slender little plants before they have had

time to send down their roots into the moister soil beneath. Every effort should therefore be made to make the soil as compact as possible after the seeds are sown, and the method practiced by Dr. Gordon may well be imitated. He turned in all his horses, cattle, and sheep, and allowed them to thoroughly tramp down the soil. In this way the soil is made compact enough so that it will retain moisture much nearer to the surface, allowing the seeds to germinate, and preventing the drying up of the young plant during the period of its infancy.

3. Another point of great importance is the fact that most excellent pastures are now made by sowing Blue Grass seed upon the unbroken prairie. After close feeding the wild grasses are sufficiently reduced in strength, so that the young Blue Grass plants are enabled to fight their way, and to eventually almost, if not entirely, eradicate the original grasses. Some of the finest and most durable pastures in the state have been made in this way.

Orchard Grass (Dactylis glomerata).-As to this grass I have but little to add to what has previously been said. Its growth appears to be slowly increasing in the eastern part of the state, and not a few farmers have assured me of their confidence in it as a valuable grass for early hay.

Red Top (Agrostis vulgaris).—For the lower lands lying along the larger streams Red Top is deservedly coming into favor and is recommended by many farmers. There can be but little doubt that this grass will eventually occupy about the same place here that it does in the more eastern states, where it is considered as exceptionally fine for hay for horses.

Wild Grasses.--Last year, as doubtless some of you remember, I called your attention to a wild grass which I named Muhlenburg's grass (Muhlenbergia glomerata). It is the grass which possesses the enviable distinction of showing the highest per cent of nutritive constituents of any of those which have as yet been examined by the government chemist. Now, a grass which is highly nutritious ought to be highly interesting to the stock grower, for it is nutritiousness that he is chiefly concerned in.

During the year I have been on the lookout for evidence as to its fitness for this soil, and I find everywhere abundant evidence that it