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maturing a small shining brown seed which the birds plunder and the hens find delicious; and the italicum growing a thick heavy top which droops effectively beside the corn in the field where they are compared as foods; Japanese beans, with broad low leaves flapping in the wind and curious pods which seem to have slid from a Satsuma jar or a Banko teapot. There are two classes of these beans—the Japanese Soja or Soya bean, "the delicious soy," of which there are seven varieties under cultivation, and a smaller thin-skinned bean which, boiled, sifted, sweetened and colored, forms a favorite Japanese confection. Japanese hemp and French grown in neighboring rows are also cultivated for comparison, and several varieties of Belgian flax.
Every inch of the one hundred and twenty acres is plied with questions. This fertilizer or that, this machine or another,— which will you have? Hay caps made of cotton, hay caps oiled, and those made of wood pulp undergo the ordeal of water. Seeds are gathered for distribution. Hay is baled by means of a "perpetual baler" of magnificent proportions. Silage is prepared with two great cutting machines, one like a lawn mower, the other having three large knives in its revolving wheel. The silos are but empty black pits at present, their shining sides sprinkled with fragments of last year's hoard. They are built with double boards, thickly smeared with hot tar. After the finely chopped fodder is in, layers of straw are placed on top, covered with thick building paper. Planks, a trifle short to permit settling, are laid upon the papers, and upon the planks a foot of sand, as weight.
Ensilage is carried on at both the barns, "the old barn," contemporaneous with the origin of the college, and "the new barn," rich in modern improvements and containing offices, fertilizer room, grain room and seed room, together with the wings for the experimental feeding of stock, and cellars where roots are stored and sheep and swine are housed. Here were prepared the specimens of grain sent to the Columbian Exposition, along with specimens of soils from different parts of the State.
In the old barn are the great haymows, the silage and baling machines and, below stairs, the fine handsome cattle, fastened in their stalls by every conceivable method. A mild-eyed creature, as helpless in the old-fashioned rigid stanchions as Jeremiah in the stocks, rolls an appealing glance at us. Beside her, a sleek Holstein swings a movable yoke at right angles with the stall. There are yokes crooked and straight, chain and single and swinging stanchions, and all sorts of patent ties. Records of daily milk yield, giving the date and weight of each milking, are affixed to the wall of this bovine dormitory. One bears the aristocratic names of the pure-breds, the Twilights and Buttercups, the Emilias and Cornelias of proud Shorthorn and Guernsey, Ayrshire, Holstein, and Jersey stock. The other is inscribed with the Bets and Jos and Nancys of plebeian descent. Each cow has her stall and her name above it, and each in her own dignified and modest way is assisting the station in its experiments. The fawn-like calves, curled up in their bunks, will have their part, too, to play, and that a vital one. Their little dead stomachs, full or fasting, will bear witness to the strength of the rennet obtained under such conditions.
The Southdowns are at the other end of the pasture. "Coss! Coss! Coss!" There is a stir among them. "C'nan! C'nan! C'nan!" One adventurous spirit answers with a bleat and sets off on a trot; the rest follow. They disappear in the hollow and reappear over the brow of the hill, their pretty brown faces peering questioningly up at us. "C'nan! C'nan C'nan!" They patter forward, all bleating now, inviting the offering which does not come. It is a pity to disappoint them. We drive down to the cribs for corn. Will they come a second time? It is a trial of animal trustfulness not down in the bulletins. After some delay and much discussion, they start again, down the hill, two belligerent rams conflicting and pausing to settle the matter on the spot. The whole company are finally grouped before us, round, symmetrical bodies, trim, brown legs, bright, clean faces, an attractive picture. We toss the
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