EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 437 



The Silver King and Duncan varieties, for instance, are splendid silage 

 varieties in central Michigan, while in southern Michigan Eeid's and 

 Learning, of northern Ohio and northern Indiana, make excellent silage 

 corn. In northern Michigan the Golden Glow, and Early Silver King 

 from central Michigan, make good silage. 



Extremely large growing types, such as the Bed Gob Ensilage, furnish 

 a large yield per acre of silage material, carrying a much higher water 

 content and less food value than silage of greater maturity. The dairy- 

 man, living near large cities with a limited acreage, who buys most of 

 his feed, may find these types of use in giving him the largest yield of 

 succulent roughage per acre on his high priced land. The average 

 dairyman and farmer, however, usualh' has plenty of land and is more 

 limited in silage space and desires to save as much as possible on con- 

 centrates. For him, a thrifty variety which reaches a more advanced 

 stage of maturity is the best for silage. 



VARIETY TESTS FOR CORN 



In view of the variability of the soil and climatic conditions in Michi- 

 gan, and hence the great variation in adaptation of corn varieties, the 

 Farm Crops department has found it advisable to conduct numerous 

 corn variety tests well distributed over the State, as well as at the Ex- 

 periment Station. 



These tests show that there is a great difference in the yielding ability 

 of varieties grown in all Michigan corn localities. Some strains will 

 out-yield others by 40 to 50%. Taking the year 1919, for example, in 

 24 tests the average of the highest yielding varieties was 59.21 and the 

 average of the lowest yielding varieties was 35.44 a difference of 23.77 

 bushels. 



Without doubt, if the leading varieties of various districts were 

 adopted as standards, corn yields would be greatly increased. Corn 

 variety tests, the past few years, have shown that Ihere are many local 

 varieties of merit which should be more widely grown. 



The accompanying table, No. 2, gives the yields of typical varieties in 

 tests held in a number of Michigan counties in 1919. 



Table No. 3 gives the yields of a number of representative Michigan 

 corn varieties in variety tests conducted at the Michigan Agricultural 

 College. 



