The Bulletin. 53 



comments of distance tests. 



These tests were conducted this year at the Iredell and Experiment 

 Station farms, seed of Cocke's Prolific having been used at Edge- 

 combe and Experiment Station and Weekley's Improved at Iredell 

 for planting the different tests during all the years. The distancing 

 best suijted to the soil of the Edgecombe farm in its present state of 

 fertility, as indicated by an average of five years' results, is 4 feet by 

 3 feet; at Iredell and Red Springs, as an average of three and four 

 years' results, respectively, 5 feet by 2 feet; while at the Experiment 

 Station, as an average of two years, 39.6 inches by 60 inches afforded 

 the highest yield. It will require a number of repetitions of this test 

 to arrive at a fair idea of the best width of rows and distance in rows 

 for planting corn on the types of soil used in the experiments. This 

 will no doubt vary with the different kinds of corn, soil and season. 



In Table VIII is presented in concise form the results of all dis- 

 tance tests with corn that have been conducted at the Edgecombe and 

 Red Springs farms during five years, at Iredell during the past four 

 years, and at the Experiment Station during two years. 



II. Variety and Distance Tests of Cotton. 



Preparation and Cultivation.- — All plats devoted to these tests were 

 broke 8 to 10 inches deep during the middle of March at Edgecombe 

 and in January at Iredell with a two-horse turning-plow, followed 

 by a thorough disking during the middle of April. Just before laying 

 off the rows, which was during the last of April, the gTound was 

 "gone over" with a smoothing harrow. The rows were run 5 to 7 

 inches deep 3 1-3 apart with an 8-incli shovel, and the fertilizer ma- 

 terials applied in the drill at the following rate per acre in all tests : 



Four hundred pounds of a mixture of acid phosphate, manure 

 salt and dried blood, which contained 7 per cent available phosphoric 

 acid, 21/2 per cent potash and 21/2 per cent nitrogen (equal to 3.04 

 per cent ammonia), costing $4.08, were used. 



The cultivation was level with cultivators, being moderately deep 

 at the beginning of the season and shallower as the root zone in- 

 creased. The cultivator was never run more than twice to the row 

 at a time, as this more than covered the middle, and an effort was 

 made to work over the platsi as quickly as possible immediately after 

 rains to break the crust formed by the showers and leave a dust mulch 

 to check evaporation. The cultivator was run about 1^ to 2 inches 

 deep toward the close of the season. It was attempted to cultivate 

 every ten days, which had to be changed, of course, to suit the season. 

 The cotton was reduced to a stand of 15 inches at Edgecombe and 16 

 inches at Iredell between the hills in the rows with the variety tests. 



RESULTS OF VARIETY TESTS OF COTTON. 



Tlie results of these tests are included in the following tables : 



