301 



Experiments on the Farm of Mr. James Moore Near 



Auburn. 



The Experiment Station Farm lies near the dividing 

 line between the red clays of the Piedmont region and the 

 sandy lands of the lower levels to the southward. It is hardly 

 typical of either class of soils. Through the kindness of Mr. 

 James Maore of Auburn, it has been possible to try some cotton 

 rust experiments on the typical sandy soil of Middle Ala- 

 bama at his farm three miles south of Auburn. These experi- 

 ments while on the same general line as the co-operative one 

 suggested in the circular letter p.289 were rather more extended 

 and included differences in the preparation of the soil as well 

 as the different use of fertilizers. Two series of plots were 

 laid out in the fall in different fields and bands across each lot 

 of plots were plowed and seeded to oats to test the effect of a 

 winter cover in preserving the fertility of the soil. The soil 

 was poor and as the oats were planted rather late they had 

 made but little growth before being plowed down in the spring, 

 so that this feature of the experiment w^as without result. 

 Early in spring part of the oat bands and parts of the unseed- 

 ed land were plowed with a turning plow followed in the 

 same furrow by a scooter that loosened or subsoiled the 

 ground to a depth of ten or twelve inches. The remainder of 

 of the land was not broken but was laid off, fertilized and 

 bedded in the way usual in these light sandy soils. During a 

 rather severe spring drouth Mr. Moore thought that these 

 subsoiled strips held moisture better than the unbroken land 

 and that the plants grew off rather better. During the latter 

 part of the season rains were seasonable and this slight 

 advantage was lost. At harvest time there was no appreciable 

 difference and it seemed to have no effect in preventing rust. 



Moore Experiment No. 1.— The field selected for this set 

 of plots was in corn and cow peas in 1897 and a large crop of 

 pea vines was left to decay on the land. On March 25, 1898, 

 plots 7^ rods long and 1 rod wide were laid off in this field 

 crossing the bands that had been seeded to oats and these that 

 had been subsoiled. Mr. Moore was using on his general crop 



