456 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



set aside for the experiment, in Field No. 8. The corn had been planted 

 with a check rower in hills three feet and nine inches apart each way. 

 The sizes of the kernels of the seed corn had varied and hence th^re 

 were more stalks in some hills than in others, and there were occasionally 

 blanks w r here the planter had failed to work. Eighty row T s running east 

 and west were used in the experiment. In nutting the corn, two hundred 

 hills were drawn to the barn at a load and the stalks counted. If liills 

 w T ere found containing but a single stalk, or if by reason of smut or 

 some other disease the hill was abnormally small or defective, such hills 

 were omitted. The cuttings were made august 10 and 25, and Septem- 

 ber 6 and 15. On August 10, the first, fifth, ninth, thirteenth and every 

 fourth row thereafter were cut, until twerty rows had been cut. Twenty 

 hills were cut in each row 7 . On August 25, the second, sixth, tenth, four- 

 teenth, and each fourth row therafter, w 7 ere harvested. In this way it 

 was thought that the corn cut at the successive intervals would be drawn 

 from all parts of the area and the conclusions fror. the comparisons of 

 their different weights and behavior would be fair and warranted. 



In trying to avoid the disturbing elements of variations in the pro- 

 ductiveness of the soil and other factors that would have entered in had 

 the corn been cut on distinct but adjacent areas on the different dates, 

 another influence was introduced whose importance cannot be calcu- 

 lated. After August 25, two rows were left standing with two rows on 

 each side cut away. This admitted the sunlight freely to the plants 

 in these rows and caused them to mature somewhat more rapidly and 

 more fully than would have been th^ case had all the ground been occu- 

 pied. It was noted, especially at the time of cutting the last quantity 

 on September 15, when one row had been left standing for nine days 

 with three rows vacant on each side that the corn was distinctly drier and 

 more mature than in the nearly geueral field. 



The corn was weighed at each date in two separate lots of two hundred 

 hills each. The number of stalks in each lot at each date, the w r eight of 

 each load and the average w T eight per stalk in each case is given below. 



Weights of 200 hills, average weight of single stalks, and weights of 400 hills at 



different dates. 



Data. 



Aug. 10. 

 Aug. 25 . 

 Sept. 6 . 

 Sept. 15 



Av. weight 

 per stalk. 



Lbs. 



1 



2 



2 



2 



2 



2 



2.12 



2 



2.09 

 2.48 



98) 

 20 J 

 32 I 

 6«J 



59 f '^ 9 

 li \ 2.28 



Total 

 stalks. 



1,311 

 1,329 

 1,352 

 1,308 



Total 



weights. 



Lbs. 



2,738 

 3,292 

 3,310 

 2,971 



As was to be expected, the fewer the number of stalks in the two hun- 

 dred hills the greater the weight per stalk. It is to be noted also that 

 the absolute weight of the two hundred hills containing the fewer num- 

 ber of stalks was greater August 10 and August 25, and that on Sep- 

 tember 15, when there were ninety stalks more in one two hundred 

 hill lot than in the other, the difference in absolute weight was only 

 three pounds. There deems to be a strong indication, as far as this 

 experiment bears on the roint, that as far as gross yield per acre is 



