The Bulletin. 21 



comments on variety tests of cokn. 



The variety tests were conducted this year at the Edgecomhe and 

 Iredell farms. The land at the Edgecombe farm devoted, to this test 

 was good general farm land, while at Iredell a fine brownish clay soil 

 with a red clay subsoil was used. To eliminate all inequalities in 

 the character of the land, if any, the designated varieties at the dif- 

 ferent farms were planted each in separate rows, arranged consecu- 

 tively, and this plan was repeated from two to four times, varying 

 with the length of the rows, in order to give the desired acreage to 

 each variety. The varieties are arranged in Table I in the order of 

 their productivity of shell corn per acre ; also the rank of stover per 

 acre is indicated in the second column. In Table II are brought to- 

 gether the results of varietal tests obtained at the Edgecombe farm 

 during 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906 and 1907; at Red 

 Springs in 1900 and 1901, and at Iredell during 1903, 1904, 1905, 

 1906 and 1907. Results from the testing of varieties of corn were 

 obtained at the Transylvania during 1906 only. The vigorous- 

 ness in growth, prolificacy, largeness of ears, percentages of grain 

 and stover, yields, etc., of all varieties tested at the different farms 

 are shown in Tables I, II, III and IV. 



By consulting Table II it will be seen that the differences in yield 

 of shelled corn per acre on the different farms during the period 

 covered by the tests between the variety yielding the highest and the 

 one the lowest in the individual tests have ranged all the way from 

 6.2 to 26.6 bushels of shelled corn at the Edgecombe farm during 

 the past eight years, with the number of varieties in the different tests 

 varying from eight to thirty-six; from 7.7 to 14 bushels at Red 

 Springs, when using nine varieties for each of two years; from 12.1 

 to 13.5 bushels during five years at Iredell, where from nineteen to 

 thirty-seven varieties were employed; and a difference of 24.8 bushels 

 at Transylvania during 1906, where thirty-four varieties were 



planted. 



Tables III and IV will be found to contain much valuable data, in 

 plain, compact form, relative to the different characters of corn when 

 grown under widely varying soil and climatic conditions. A careful 

 study of these tables should be made by every corn-growing reader. 



Table II also gives the average standing of all the varieties, at each 

 farm, that have been tested continuously since the beginning of the 

 work in the different localities. The varieties which have averaged 

 the highest yields of shelled corn at the different farms are : At Edge- 

 combe, during eight years, Cocke's Prolific, Weekley's Improved, 

 Sanders' Improved and Holt's Strawberry ; at Red Springs, during 

 two years, Native, Cocke's Prolific, Holt's Strawberry and Weekley's 

 Improved; at Iredell, Weekley's Improved, Sanders' Improved, 

 Cocke's Prolific and Boone County White. 



