NINTH (PARTIAL 1 ) REPORT OF THE WORK ON THE DEPART- 

 MENT TEST FARMS FOR SEASON 1908. 



INCLUDING 



VARIETY AND DISTANCE TESTS OF CORN AND COTTON, 



B. \V. KILGORE. State Chemist, Field Crops. 



by 

 G. M. MacNider, Soil Work. 



LIBRA 

 NEW YORK 

 BOTANICAL 

 AN " OARDHN. 



J. L. Burgess, Agronomist, 



AND 



R. W. Scott, Jr., Superintendent Edgecombe Test Farm. 



F. T. Meacham, Superintendent Iredell Test Farm, 



R. W. Collett, Superintendent Buncombe and Transylvania Test Farms. 



On the following pages are recorded the results of this year's work 

 with the variety and distance tests of corn and cotton on the Depart- 

 ment's test farms. The testing of these two factors in the production 

 of cotton and corn is of the most fundamental importance, as is evi- 

 denced by the difference in yield of different varieties and of different 

 distancing when grown side by side in the same field, on the same type 

 of soil, with identical cultivation and fertilization. Its importance is 

 further emphasized when it is considered that 64.7 per cent (17.5 per 

 cent to cotton and 47.2 per cent to corn) of the cultivated lands of North 

 Carolina are devoted to these two crops, with the small average annual 

 yields of 215 pounds of lint cotton and 12.8 bushels shelled corn per 

 acre. If by carefully conducted experiments through a number of years 

 the most advantageous distancing and most prolific varieties of corn and 

 cotton on the different types of soil for an average season can be ascer- 

 tained, and farmers generally be induced to use the best varieties and 

 distances in growing these crops, material assistance will have been ren- 

 dered in increasing the total amounts per acre of these crops grown in 

 the State. Increasing the average yield of corn one bushel and seed cot- 

 ton fifty pounds per acre will, according to the census of 1900, increase 

 the anuual profits of the farmers of North Carolina by about $3,650,000, 

 allowing sixty cents per bushel for shelled corn and three and one-half 

 cents per pound for seed cotton. This does not appear, with the hearty 

 co-operation of farmers, such a far-distant possibility, in the light of 

 results during the past seven years in our testing of varieties of corn 

 and cotton. Take, for example, the results of our variety tests at the 



'The main portion of the work for 1902, 1003, 1904, 1905, 19C6 and 1907 is reserved for publi- 

 cation later, when the results of our tests, which have now been running some six or seven 

 years, will be brought together, with the view of drawing such conclusions as may be warranted 

 on the subjects covered by the experiments. 



