108 Report of Farmers' Iivstitutes 



Selection has easily lowered the ears on the stalks, and earli- 

 ness accompanies low ears. Ear-row tests and subsequent crossing 

 of best ears make it possible to increase yields 5 to 10 bushels 

 per acre but not much beyond this point. 



An average gain of nearly 4 bushels has come from the use of 

 individual ears given a germination test; a return of about $6.50 

 an hour for the time spent in test. 



Soy heans. (Conn. [State] 185.) Soy beans are beter adapted 

 to Connecticut than cowpeas, since they are more resistant to 

 drought, heat and frosts, are upright in habit and therefore easier 

 to handle, and they yield more seed, which is all ripe at one time 

 and is a more concentrated feed. The yields range from 1.(3 to 

 3.1 tons per acre of dry matter, as compared with yields of corn 

 at the same places, of 3.9 to 5.0 tons; but the soy beans average 

 670 pounds to the acre of digestible protein, while corn produces 

 less than half this amount. 



The earliest varieties, blooming in 55 to 60 days and then fit 

 for soiling, were, in order of yield of forage, Manhattan, Medium 

 Yellow Quebec and Ito San; the medium early varieties, bloom- 

 ing in 62 to 75 days, were Ebony, Wilson, Medium Green, Ken- 

 tucky and O'Kute ; and the later varieties, Arlington, Cloud and 

 Swan. The later varieties, as a rule, are heaviest producers of 

 forage. 



HoUybrook was grown in an unfavorable location, but is con- 

 sidered one of the best varieties. 



Mulched potatoes for seed. (ISTebr. 146.) During eight years' 

 work, 22 experiments, seed potatoes grown under a mulch of 

 coarse material were compared with seed grown under other con- 

 ditions. In ten tests where the seed tubers had been grown for 

 only one year under each method, for each 100 pounds of tubers 

 grown from mulched seed, the cultivated seed produced from 

 62 to 93 pounds only, with an average of 77.3 pounds. From all 

 the 22 tests it appears that the difference in favor of the mulched 

 seed increases with the time the other seed has been cultivated, 

 ranging from 77 pounds from seed cultivated one year to 54 

 pounds for seed cultivated eight years, as compared with 100 

 pounds from mulched seed. The mulch-grown seed has out- 

 yielded northern grown seed of the same varieties by 2 per cent 



