Removing Tassels from Corn. 



Since the publication of tlie results of an experiment made at 

 this station in 1890, in removing the tassels from com to increase 

 the yield, the experiment has been repeated and similar experi- 

 ments have been made at experiment stations, in at last four 

 other States, with varying results. 



The numerous inquiries and correspondence received concerning 

 these experiments seem to demand a more full explanation of the 

 work done in this direction. 



In one of the com fields on the university farm two adjoining 

 plots were selected. Plot I consisted of twenty-five rows of 

 seventy-two hills each; from each alternate row the tassels were 

 removed soon after they appeared; in many cases the tassels were 

 yet quite well inclosed within the folds of the leaves at the time 

 of removal, yet occasionally one would become well expanded and 

 slightly polliniferous during the four days between pickings. 



The tassels were removed by hand, as in the previous experi- 

 ment, by giving an upward pull to the tassel, causing the stalk to 

 break some distance below and yet without removing any) 

 leaves. ' 



Plot n contained twenty-one rows of seventy-two hills each. 

 In this plot the tassels were removed from three-fourths of the 

 rows; that is, the tassels were left, on the first row and removed 

 from the second, third and fourth; left on the fifth and removed 

 from the next three, and so on, the last row of Plot I forming the 

 first row of Plot 11. 



The variety of com was Sibley's Pride of the North. It was 

 planted the last week in April in fertile, dry, gravelly soil, in hills 

 three and one-half feet apart in the row, and rows three feet 



