REPORT OF MR. W. S. BLAIR. 



or*'"* 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



EXPERIMENTS WITH GARDEN CORN. 



Experiments were conducted with twelve varieties of garden corn, which were 

 planted in hills 3 feet apart each way on May 30. The land was previously in beans 

 and was manured in the spring of 1900 with 25 one-horse cart-loads of stable manure 

 per acre, which was ploughed under and worked up. The plots made slow early 

 growth. Each plot was one row 66 feet long. The yields of marketable ears are given 

 in the fol' owing table. The crop was cut September 15. 



This is the lirst year that the variety ' New Champion ' has been grown here, and it 

 appears from the test that it is a promising sort. 



GARDEN CORN— TEST OF VARIETIES. 



Name of Variety. 



Early White Cory 



Crosby's Early 



New Champion 



Perry's Hj'biid 



Nonesuch ' ' ' ' - 



Hickox Improved , 



Old Colony 



M'Xjre's Early Concord. 

 Kendall's Early Giant . . . 



Country Gentleman 



Stowell's Everg-reeu 



Zig-zag Evergreen 



Number 

 of Ears 

 Fit for 



Market . 



1G3 



142 



122 



32 



30 



28 



23 



12 



8 



Size 



of 



Ears. 



Medium 



If 

 Large 



Fair 

 Large 



Condi- 

 tion 

 for 

 Use. 



Good 



Fair 



It 



Not fit 



SOAKING GARDEN CORN SEED TO HASTEIS GROWTH. 



To gain information as to the value of soaking corn before planting, an experiment 

 was tried by soaking the seed of four varieties in warm water for twelve hours before 

 planting. Duplicate plots were planted alongside which w^re not soaked. The seed 

 was planted in hills 3 feet apart May 31. 



There was no apparent difference in the growth of the plants from the seed soaked 

 and not soaked, and judging from two years experiments along this line, it would 

 appear that there is no gain whatever in soaking the seed. The crop was cut September 

 15. The following numbers of ears were obtained from the plots, each being one row, 

 06 feet long :— 



GARDEN CORN -SOAKED AND NOT SOAKED. 



Name of Variety. 



Early White Cory 

 Crosby's Early . . . 

 Perry's Hybrid . . 

 Nonesuch 



