43G STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



resembling the Egyptian Mummy, but slightly darker colored. Cut September 

 8 and 9, except Golden Vine, which was cut September 30, it was after the middle 

 of October before any of the peas could be hauled to the barn, and by that time 

 most of the ripest peas were shelled out. As a crop for plowing under, all varie- 

 ties were a success, the well cured vines giving a yield per acre as follows, the 

 vines ,of the Golden Vine variety not being as well cured as the others however, 

 being harvested three wee^ later and all being weighed at the same time when 

 hauled under cover. 



Canada Beauty 3,080 lbs. 



Scotch 4.S40 lbs. 



Blackeyed Marrowfat 4,420 lbs. 



Prussian Blue 3,460 lbs. 



Egyptian Mummy 3,740 lbs. 



Golden Vine 5,060 lbs. 



Flax. — A small plot, V,x6 rods, was planted May 1.5, and an even stand secured, 

 the plants beginning to blossom July 9 and averaging 37 inches in height. The 

 seed was ripe September 10, and though much of it was lost by shelling and im- 

 perfect threshing, there remained 16 1^- lbs. of good, bright seed, or at the rate 

 of nearly 16 bushels per acre. 



Coru. — The testing of early varieties was continued, not with any hope of 

 obtaining results strikingly better than before, even had the weather been as 

 favorable as during 1902. As stated in our last report, this hope is not expected 

 to be realized as long as dozens of miles of the surrounding territory remain an 

 unbroken forest. In the absence of any accurate statistics to support this con- 

 tention, the following from a recent bulletin of the Florida Experiment Station 

 may be of interest: "It has been found that a system of clearing so as to facilitate 

 a free circulation of the air has greatly lessened the liability of frost in sections 

 on the east coast. Many localities in that region which at one time were decidely 

 frosty, are rarely injured now by cold, and this is attributed to the large amount 

 of clearing that has been done in the neighborhood." (Bulletin No. 68, page 696, 

 Florida Experiment Station, June 1903, H. K. Miller and H. Harold Hume.) It 

 cannot well be claimed that what applies to Florida will not apply to Michigan 

 as well. 



While the weather conditions for corn were much more unfavorable during 1903 

 than during any previous season, several varieties, especially the Dakota Yellow 

 Dent, would have ripened, had it not been for the unusually cold nights during 

 August. Scarcely any variety showed damage from the frost of September 6, and 

 the more advanced varieties were not seriously hurt by the second September frost 

 on the 29th. 



The tests of the present season show that the question of variety is of first im- 

 portance. The results do not seem to bear out the general contention that the 

 flint varieties are earlier maturing and hardier than the dent varieties, for both 

 the Dakota and the Northwestern Dent were farther advanced than any of the 

 flint varieties when final observations were taken at the end of September. Nor 

 are all the flints hardy or early maturing, since Golden Superb was last to tassel 

 among all varieties, and the plants were not fully grown at the end of the sea- 

 son though the plot had the best exposure, while several of the other plots were 

 partially deprived from sunshine by the nearby standing timber on the west side. 

 The following table shows the varieties tested and their condition at the end of 

 September: 



