The Bulletin. 



Volume 27. North Carolina State Board of Agriculture. Number 2. 



Entered at the Raleigh Post-office as second-class mail matter. 



The Bulletin is published monthly by the State Board of Agriculture. 



RALEIGH, f EBRUARY, 1906. 



SIXTH (PARTIAL*) REPORT OF THE WORK OJs^ THE DE- 

 PARTMENT TEST FARMS FOR SEASON 1905, 



INCLUDING 



VARIETY AND DISTANCE TESTS OF CORN AND 



COTTON. 



BY 



B. W. KiLGORE, State Chemist, 



C. B. Williams, Assistant Chemist. 



AND 



G. T. Bullock, Superintendent Edgecombe Test Fabm, 

 F. T. Meacham, Superintendent Iredell Test Farm. 



On the following pages are recorded the results of this year's work 

 with the variety and distance tests of corn and cotton on the Depart- 

 ment's Test Farms. The testing of these two factors in the produc- 

 tion of cotton and corn is of the most fundamental importance, as is 

 evidenced by the difference in yield of different varieties and of 

 different distancing when grown side by side in the same field, on 

 the same type of soil, with identical cultivation and fertilization. 

 Its importance is further emphasized when it is considered that 64.7 

 per cent (17.5 per cent to cotton and 47.2 per cent to corn) of the 

 cultivated lands of North Carolina are devoted to these two crops 

 with the small average annual yields of 215 pounds of lint cotton and 

 12.8 bushels shelled corn per acre. If by carefully conducted experi- 

 ments through a number of years the most advantageous distancing 

 and most prolific varieties of corn and cotton on the different types 

 of soil for an average season can be ascertained, and farmers gener- 

 ally be induced to use the best varieties and distances in growing 

 these crops, material assistance will have been rendered in increas- 

 ing the total amounts per acre of these crops grown in the State. 

 Increasing the average yield of corn one bushel and seed cotton fifty 

 pounds per acre will, according to the census of 1900, increase the 



*The main portion of the work for 1902. 1903, 1904 and 1905 is reserved for publication later, when 

 the results of our tests, which have now been TWnmng some five or six years, will be brought 

 together, with the view of drawing such conclusions as may be warranted on the subjects covered 

 by the experiments. 



