Importance of Nitrogen to Growth of Plants. 



235 



in a general way they were substantially equal on weed and scraped plats 

 while on stirred plats both were higher. It is extremely unfortunate 

 that the nitrogen content was not determined early in the season at the 

 time when it is presumably most needed by the maize. However, the 

 gist of this test is to suggest that the failure of the maize to properly 

 develop was due to other causes than lack of water or available nitrogen. 



Root interference. 



In undertaking to explain the influence of weeds, Gates grew a 

 maize plant in each end of two rectangular boxes. In one of these boxes 

 he placed a partition ; in the other no partition was used, but the roots of 

 the maize plants were allowed to intermingle freely, which they did. 

 Other boxes were arranged in like manner with a maize plant in one end 

 and rye and in other cases millet at the other end. 



The result was that the amount of top was somewhat smaller and 

 the amount of root decidedly larger when the two maize plants had their 

 roots separated. In like manner, the top of the maize plant was larger 

 when the rye growing in the same box was separated from the roots 

 of the maize. The millet only slightly influenced the growth of maize. 

 These experiments need to be repeated with a sufficient number of 

 checks before important conclusions are drawn from them. Gates, in 

 offering an explanation for the results, has ascribed it to root interference, 

 thus showing that the gridiron may add to scientific nomenclature. 



Influence of weeds. 



During the season of 1906, Hosford conducted an experiment on 20 

 plats at Cornell University to determine the influence of weeds on the 

 growth of maize. This experiment was conducted on the Dunkirk series, 

 the soil varying from quite a sandy loam to a clay loam. The following 

 table gives the percentages of moisture and total yield of green fodder 

 on the check plats which were cultivated in the ordinary manner through- 

 out the usual season of cultivation : 



Table VIII. Influence of Texture of Soil upon Moisture Content and 



Its Relation to Yield of Maize. 



