TENTH REPORT OF THE GENERAL CROP WORK ON THE 

 DEPARTMENT TEST FARMS FOR SEASON 1909 



INCLUDING 



VARIETY AND DISTANCE TESTS OF CORN AND COTTON. 



By J. L. BuKGESs, Agronomist, 



ASSISTED BY 



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

 F. T. Meacham, Superintendent Iredell Test Farm. 

 R. W. CoLLETT, Superintendent Buncombe Test Farm. 



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 im- 

 portance 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 cul- 

 tivated lands of North Carolina are devoted to these two crops, with 

 the small average annual yields of 220 pounds of lint cotton and 18 

 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 ascertained, and farmers generally be 

 induced to use the best varieties and distances in growing these crops, 

 material assistance will have been rendered in increasing the total 

 amounts per acre of these crops grown in the State. Increasing the 

 average yield of corn 1 bushel and seed cotton 50 pounds per acre will, 

 according to the census of 1900, increase the annual profits of the 

 farmers of North Carolina by about $3,650,000, allowing 60 cents 

 per bushel for shell corn and 314 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. 



EDGECOMBE TEST FARM. 



The work on the Edgecombe Farm last season included the test- 

 ing of 37 varieties of corn. A large number of varieties of cotton 

 were put out, but untoward weather conditions prevented our getting 

 a sufficiently good stand to justify publishing the results. 



