No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 441 



EXPERIMENTS WITH CORN AT THE PENNSYLVANIA AGRI- 

 CULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, 1908. 



By C. P. NOLLi, Assistant in Agronomy, State Colleg$, Pa. 



I have been asked to give a brief account of the experiments with 

 corn conducted at the Pennsyvania State College Experiment 

 Station in 1908. 



These consist for the most part in (1) a test of the yield and 

 adaptability to our conditions of a number of varieties, and (2) an 

 attempt to improve some of these varieties by the ear row method 

 of breeding and selection. 



Nine varieties were grown at the Station this year, of which only 

 one was from home grown seed. The other varieties were chosen 

 because they were for the most part fairly early maturing and had 

 done well elsewhere I might say that the Station is not in an 

 especially favored corn growing section. The soil is a clay loam, 

 just as we have in the Cumberland Valley and other limestone 

 valleys of the State, and the soil of the Station farms is in a good 

 state of fertility. The yield has probably reached in some years 

 100 bushels shelled corn per acre. However, the altitude is about 

 1,200 feet, and so our season is a little shorter and our nights are 

 cooler than places of the same latitude in eastern or western ends 

 of the State. For these reasons only early maturing varieties can 

 be grown successfully. The White Cap Dent Corn has been grown 

 there for years, and is well acclimated. No systematic effort, how- 

 ever, has been made to improve it, and it is non-uniform. 



In the table which is shown here there are given the varieties 

 tested, the length of the season they required in 1908, the area of 

 the plats, and the yield of corn and of fodder per acre. By a bushel 

 is meant 70 pounds, and the^ yield is based, of course, on the weight 

 of the corn when husked. The plats differed greatly in size, the 

 size being varied to suit the number of ear rows in some of the 

 plats. These varieties were grown in the same field except the Pride 

 of the North. The soil was apparently fairly uniform, but there 

 were no check plots used. The varieties were planted May 27th 

 and 28th except Pride of the North, which was planted the 30th. 

 The rows were 3:^ inches apart and the corn Avas planted in hills 

 about 3 feet apart. 



The first variety. Ninety day Ciarage matured with us in about 

 120 days. The seed was grown by C. D. Dobbins and Sons, Cedar- 

 rille, Ohio. It yielded 61.3 bushels corn and 3,330 lbs. fodder per 

 acre. This is a small yellow dent variety. The stalks are tall and 

 thin and the ears are carried high. 



Early Golden Dent matured in 120 days. It yielded 71.8 bushels 

 corn and 3,669 lbs. fodder. The seed of this variety was procured 

 from G. A. Trimmer, Mechanicsburg, Cumberland Co., Penna. It 

 is small yellow Dent variety. It has very deep grains and many 

 ears yield as much as 90 per cent, shelled corn. The yield you see 

 is good for thii ieason. An objeotion to this variety is the rougli 

 dent. 



29 



