EIGHTH (PARTIAL) REPORT OF THE WORK ON THE DEPART- 

 MENT TEST FARMS FOR SEASON 1907, 2 



INCLUDING 



VARIETY AND DISTANCE TESTS OF CORN AND COTTON. 



B. W. KILGOIIE, State Chemist, Field Crops. 



by 

 G. M. MacNideb, Soil Work, 



AND 



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



F. T. Meacham, Supebintendent Ibedell Test Fabm, 



R. W. Collett, Supebintendent Teansylvania Test Faem. 



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 Department's Test 

 Farms. The testing of these two factors in the production of cotton and 

 corn is of the most fundamental importance, as is evidenced by the differ- 

 ence 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 cul- 

 tivation 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 con- 

 ducted 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 gener- 

 ally 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 aver- 

 age yield of corn one bushel and seed cotton fifty 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 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 obtained during the past seven 



lr The main portion of the work for 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906 and 1907 is reserved 

 for publication 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. 



2 Thanks are due Mr. C B. Williams, Director of the Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion, West Raleigh, for valuable assistance in the preparation of this bulletin. 



s The results at the Edgecombe farm are taken for these comparisons because, it 

 being the oldest farm, we have data for a greater number of years. 



