Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1920-07-09

about five years as the experiment
is now only in the nursery rows and
will next year be tried out in field
plots. This experiment was started
five years ago with a cross of Turkey
Red ana Florence and for the last
three years the hybrid obtained
therefrom has been olven every OPP
portunity to smut and has yet TO
show single infected head. The
seeds were rolled in smut before
planting and while growing are sur
runded with smut, yet they have con-
tinued to be immune from this dis
ease that annually costs the produc-
ers more than the experiment sta
ton snsnds in a decade. This ex-
pertinent served well to give the Wis
itors an insight into the work of the
experiment station and the problems
it seeks to solve and the necessity
of farsightedness in their work, the
specialists being required to think in
terms of 10 years instead of the
next season, and they were told that
new experiments to improve this
yet undeveloped variety are even
now under way, the results of which
can not be known until 1890.
In the soil fertility tests there are
48 plots to experiment on the diff
ferent kinds of fertilizers. The as
sertion was made that rs per cent
of the original nitrogen of the Pa
louise soils has been lost as a direct
result of the summer fallow method
of farming, and that this must be
restored through the use of legumes,
such as peas, alfalfa, sweet clover
and common clover. From the prac-
teal farmers standpoint the most
interesting plot was one showing an
excellent stand of alfalfa grown with
peas as a nurse crop, thus eliminat-
ing the year usually wasted in start
ing alfalfa.
To show the practical side Of farm
ing in student work at college there
are AZ plots given over to the differ
ent systems of farming, the aim be-
ing to allow the embryo farmers to
see the effect of the different meth
DDS employed in agricultural produc-
ton.
While the attendance at the sum-
mer meeting was hardly as large as
expected it was a great success from
an educational standpoint and the
farmers were well pleased with the
events of the day. The program
closed with a musical in honor of
the guests by members of the faculty
of the school of music of the college.
In the seed planting tests the Wis
itors were shown to effect of plant
ing on various dates from August l
to December / the intervals being
two weeks. Although the most
smut is produced by paintings from
September / to IS, yet the yields are
so superior that the conclusion
seems to be that the early Septem-
Der paintings are the most profit
able.
Extensive experiments were
shown in the forage crop work with
alfalfa, peas and clover predominant
ing. There are 100 varieties of al
falfa in the seed plots and innumer-
able kinds of clover and peas, some
of the seed having been obtained in
Europe and Asia, The beautiful
fields of peas and the alfalfa and
clover fields thickly dotted with
cooked hay were the causes of many
favorable comments.
Four acres of sunflowers brought
forth many inquiries and it was eX-
planned that these were grown for
silage experiments, the yields so far
having proved much greater than
corn, though the food value is not
quite as high. The effect of the sun
flowers on the succeeding crops is
yet to be definitely determined.
Questions were asked about the
narrow border of wheat sprouting
around the seed plots and it was ex-
planned that this was to demonstrate
the futility of planting Hybrid 1928
and other winter wheats in the
spring.