FARM OF THE NEW JERSEY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

The College farm occupies a tract of rolling land on the eastern border of the city of New Brunswick. The soil is mostly clay, of red shale origin, with occasional patches of sandy loam. It is thoroughly underdrained, and practically free from stones and other obstructions. There are few fences, and these being mostly of Sedgewick woven wire, are easily moved as circumstances require. A lane extends through the farm from north to south; thus, the place is well laid out and fitted for regular farm work and field experiments.

The barn is commodious and convenient, yet there is needed another building for farm implements and machinery, the supply of which is constantly increasing. Two maps of the farm accompany this report.

Map No. 1 shows the topography of the farm and the lines of the ditches. The curved contour lines with numbers on them indicate the elevation of the ground on which they lie, in feet, above the surface of the pond, which latter is about seventy-five feet above mean tide. The farm buildings are also marked on this map: a is a dwelling-house; b a spring-house; c a farm-house; e the main barn.

Map No. 2 shows the division of the farm. The fields are designated by numbers, and are separated from each other by heavy dotted lines. Subdivisions of fields are marked by letters a, b, c, d, etc. The work of the Farm during the past year has followed the same general lines as the year previous. Notwithstanding two serious drawbacks, the destruction of the greater part of the herd on account of tuberculosis and the severe drouth, operations have been attended with a fair measure of success.

Practically all of the 97.4 acres contained in the farm are under cultivation, there being no pasture nor waste land. All ordinary crops of this section are raised either for experiment or as a source of income.

MAP OF THE

Agricultural College Farm,

NEW BRUNSWICK.N.J.

SHOWING TOPOGRAPHY

There has been an average herd of about twenty-five head of cattle and six horses, which were stall-fed throughout the year. This required a large amount of green forage crops which were fed in the following order: green rye, wheat, crimson clover, red clover, orchard grass, peas and oats, mixed grasses, corn, turnips, beets and carrots. Sufficient corn-fodder was harvested to last throughout the winter and we also cut 103 tons of hay.

Early in the year the herd of forty-three head were subjected to the tuberculin test, about 70 per cent. reacted and were slaughtered. An examination of the carcasses demonstrated the accuracy of the test. Since that time the herd has been gradually built up, until we now have twenty-nine milch cows, some young stock and two Guernsey bulls, one an imported animal, the gift of H. McK. Twombly. In selecting animals, vigor of constitution and milking qualities have received more attention than pedigree, and all are subjected to the tuberculin test before purchase. We have representatives of the following breeds: Holstein, Guernsey, Jersey and Ayrshire.

IMPLEMENTS.

Aside from the implements generally found upon farms, we find the following of practical use and a great saving in labor: Sulky plow, manure spreader, horse corn-planter, the Aspinwall combined corn and potato planter, wheelbarrow grass seeder, weeders, hay loader, and a four-horse Hoover potato-digger. The steam which operates the engine running the Ross power fodder cutter is furnished by a twelve-horse boiler, but realizing the necessity of a smaller boiler for the dairy, we have recently purchased a six-horse power upright boiler which heats the dairy room, furnishes steam for cleansing purposes and runs a small engine for separator or churn.

Dairy. In the dairy-room a De Laval Baby separator is used for obtaining cream for market. The milk is cooled by passing through a Star milk-cooler, which aërates and cools the milk to within two degrees of the water in the pipes, afterwards bottled with a bottling machine, sealed and placed in tanks of running spring water until time of delivery. Thus the bottled milk can gather no germs nor contaminations from the air. The "Common Sense" milk jars with paper caps prove much more satisfactory than those with tin tops.

EXPERIMENTS.

This is the second year of experiment in rotation of crops for the dairy, the object being to determine the value of "intensive" cropping and proportionate yield and value of the various crops grown. The plan of rotation is as follows:

First Year.-Field corn seeded to crimson clover in July or August.

Second Year.-Crimson clover, followed by fodder corn and the land seeded to rye after the corn.

Third Year.-Rye fodder, followed by oats and peas seeded to red clover and timothy.

Fourth Year.-Hay.

The clover was sown July 26th, but owing to the extreme drouth an even catch was not secured. It withstood the winter without loss, and made a rapid early growth. On May 12th cutting for forage began, the actual yield per acre being 12.4 tons. As the wind and rains caused the clover to lodge badly, it was not closely cropped. On June 1st, one acre, from which 6.1 tons of green clover forage had been used was prepared for fodder corn. On June 14th eighteen quarts of the seed of an early yellow "dent" variety were drilled in rows three and one-half feet apart, and each acre fertilized broadcast with 250 pounds of an even mixture of ground bone, acid phosphate and muriate of potash. After planting, the crop was cultivated shallow at least once each week until the size of the corn prevented. Breed's Weeder was used in both directions until the corn was six inches high. The corn made an even stand and a strong growth throughout the season and was but little affected by the extremely dry weather-the months of June, July and August showing a total rainfall of only 6.71 inches, which was very unevenly distributed. The fact that the corn withstood the drouth so well is attributed to frequent shallow cultivation. The crop was harvested September 23d, then put in large shocks until the beginning of winter, when it was weighed and showed a yield of 4.05 tons of air-dry fodder to the acre. Analysis showed that the two crops, crimson clover and corn fodder, were practically equivalent, both in amount and feeding value, to that furnished by two tons of clover hay and one and one-half tons each of corn meal and corn stalks.