Mahaleb Stock.— Investigation will determine the fact that the use of the Mahaleb as a stock on which to bud the cultivated varieties of the cherry is becoming general in the nurseries o f the Eastern, Middle and Western States. Millions of the plants are annually imported and grown in the Eastern States,and a visit to any one of our larger nurseries in August will show busy gangs inserting the buds of about every variety catalogued, under the bark of the cheap and easily worked Prunus mahaleb. Yet at every horticultural meeting, where the subject comes up for disscussion, the most diverse views are expressed by practical fruit growers as to the value o f the stock for all varieties and all soils.

Turning to any one of the standard works on propagation of the Eastern or Western Continent, we discover some o f the reasons for the well known opposing views of orchardists. As to its adaptation to varied soils Loudon says: “The most effectual dwarfing stock for the cherry is the Mahaleb, which however will not succeed on the generality of soils in England. Dubreuil recommends the wild red cherries for clayey and light soils, and the Mahaleb for soils of a light, sandy or chalky nature.”

During the past few years it has been evident that Iowa is fast becoming a blue grass state.

Many of our prominent agriculturists hold blue grass to be the most reliable pasture grass now grown within the state, and by many it is highly prized as a crop for hay. Considering its value to the practical farmers of Iowa I have made a study of its composition by means of a series of chemical analyses on samples collected at different stages of growth.

In making a chemical analysis, with a view to determine the nutritive value of any grass or other feed-stuff, it is customary to determine the amount of water, crude ash, fat, crude fiber, and nitrogen. The crude protein is obtained by multiplying the total nitrogen by 6.25, as protein contains about sixteen per cent o f nitrogen.

In 1888 we sowed many kinds of oats, wheat, and barley, but all of them were so much injured by rust, that they were scarcely worth harvesting. In 1889 we sowed them again, and a considerable number of them proved productive, and showed no signs of disease; while others suffered severely from rust, although the growing season was much more favorable for such crops than the preceding one. In 1890 we discarded certain varieties which had proved unreliable and procured others that were promising. On the 26th day of last March, the following kinds of oats were sown broadcast on ground which had produced eighty bushels of shelled corn per acre in 1889, viz: Hargett’s White Seizure, Carter’s Prize Cluster, Station Prize Cluster, Pringle’s Progress, Prince Edward’s Island, American Beauty, Everett’s Scottish Chief, Black Russian, White Russian, Black Prolific, Black Tartarian, Salzer’s White Wonder, White Australian, American Banner, Wide Awake, Race Horse, Badger Queen, White Victoria, Henderson’s Clydesdale, White Bonanza, Centennial, Currie’s Prize Cluster, Welcome, Wilson’s Prolific side oats, Baltic Oats, Giant Yellow French, Lackawana, Golden Giant side oats, Everett side oats, and Improved American Oats. The ground was divided into six long plats by lines running from the east end of the field towards the west, and the plats were numbered from the north to the south side as follow s : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. All of the plats were plowed six inches deep, except plat 3 which was not plowed at all. The plowing of plats, 1, 5 and 6 was done in the fall o f 1889, and plats 2 and 4 were plowed on the 25th day of last March. No crops had ever been grown on plats

To save poor rusted timothy hay, and let better fodder go to waste in the corn fields, has always been the rule in the west. Here are a few facts which are worth considering. If a corn crop is cut when the ears are well dented, (nearly ripe) the fodder will contain digestible nutrients per ton as follows: Albuminoids 66 pounds; Carbohydrates 868 pounds, and fat 20 pounds. To cut it earlier, would cause it to be less nutritious.

On a preceding page of this bulletin we stated, that digestible albuminoids and fats were worth 3.343 cents per pound, and that carbohydrates were worth 0.6 cents per pound in Iowa. Therefore, a little figuring will show, that a ton of good corn fodder is worth $8.08 or $16.16 per acre, as average corn fields in Iowa yield two tons of field dried fodder per acre. In former years, the average yield of hay from timothy meadows has not exceeded one and one half tons per acre. The digestible nutrients in one ton of good timothy hay are as follows: Albuminoids 73.4 pounds; carbohydrates 825 pounds, and fat 20.6 pounds; therefore a ton of timothy hay is worth $8.08 per ton, or $12.12 per acre. We find that there is no difference between the values of a ton of good timothy hay and a ton of corn fodder; but on account of the greater yield of the latter, an acre of corn fodder is worth $4.04 more than the hay from an acre of timothy.