436 



STATE BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



approximately forty rods long were used. Plots 1 and 2 contained a 

 quarter acre each, Plots 3, 4, and 5, one-half acre each. On Plot 1 the 

 corn was drilled with an ordinary grain drill, every tube sowing. The 

 rows were therefore but seven inches apart. 



Leaving the drill rigged as for Plot 1, except that each alternate tube 

 was stopped up, Plot 2 was planted in rows 14 inches apart, very thick 

 in the row, the average distance between kernels being about three inches. 



On Plot 3 the drills were two feet and four inches apart the kernels 

 being about three inches apart in the row. 



On Plot 4 the rows were three feet and nine inches apart and the corn 

 was in hills one foot and ten inches apart in the row, four kernels to a 

 hill. 



On Plot 5, the corn was planted in hills three feet and one-half apart 

 each way, four kernels in a hill. This plot suffered much more from cut 

 worms than did the others in the series. The corn was planted May 8 

 and 9. and was cultivated in the early part of the season with a Breed's 

 weeder as often as the frequent showers would allow. Later, single and 

 two-horse cultivators were used, somewhat infrequently, on account of 

 the wet weather. Plots 1 and 2 could not be cultivated, but the weeds 

 were pulled from them on the first of August. The corn grew so rapidly 

 that these weeds were choked and it did not require much labor to remove 

 them. 



The corn was put in the silo September first, the yields of the different 

 plots being weighed separately and samples taken for analysis. The first 

 table shows the chemical composition of the dry matter of the crop as 

 harvested from the various plots. 



For sake of comparison the composition of silage corn and of sorghum 

 grown on an adjacent field and planted in rows three feet apart with hills 

 eighteen inches apart in the row, is given. 



The table shows that the corn thickly sown on riot 1 contains but little 

 more water than where the stalks were larger and farther apart. It is 

 the popular belief that where corn is planted so thick that the stalks 

 are thereby made small and weak the crop is " watery." The results of 

 this experiment do not confirm this belief. 



One of the most valuable constituents of corn fodder and grain is the 

 protein. The composition of the corn grown under the different conditions 



