1919] FIELD CROPS. 227 



peri men ts with 5 varieties of wheat, 11 of oats, and 4 of barley, conducted on 

 University Farm during 1917 in an effort to determine the most desirable methods 

 in plat variety testing and cultural trials. Plats 8.5 by 132 feet, comprising 17 

 6-in. drill rows, were employed with 16-ft. roadways seeded to grass between 

 each two series and 18-in. alleys between each two plats. Each variety was 

 replicated three times. The first and second drill rows were harvested by 

 hand and hound separately, and are referred to as the outside and the inside 

 border rows, respectively. A study was made of the distance within plats at 

 Which plants were subject to border effects, the extent of the increase in yield 

 of plats due to alley effects, and the effect of alleys on different varieties. 



In summarizing the results obtained it is stated that the outside border rows 

 of oats, wheat, and barley yielded 83.5, 100.4, and 123.3 per cent, respectively, 

 more than the average from the central 13 rows, and the inside border rows 

 23.23, 49.29, and 50.3(5 per cent more. The extent of the increase due to the 

 alleys varied with the percentage of total area in at least a 124n. strip within 

 the margin of the plats, this percentage being greater for small plats as com- 

 pared with larger ones of approximately the same shape, and for long, narrow 

 plats as compared with those more nearly approaching the form of a square. 

 Plats from 6 to 8 ft. wide and from 64 to 132 ft. or more in length are more 

 readily sown and harvested with ordinary farm machinery than nearly square 

 plats of the same size. The removal of the plants occupying an area at least 

 12-in. in width in comparatively long, narrow plats apparently obviated the 

 most serious objection to their use in variety testing. 



Oats, wheat, and barley grown in plats from which the end borders were 

 cut but with no side borders removed, yielded 9.14, 5.28. and 8.4S bu. more, 

 respectively, than when the two side border rows had been removed. With 

 only one side border row removed from either side of each plat oats yielded 2.2 

 bu., wheat 1.99 bu., and barley 2.86 bu. more than when two drill rows had 

 been removed. With two border rows removed the rank in yield of different 

 oat varieties was not the same as when no border rows were removed, the per- 

 formance of one variety proving to be quite satisfactory by the former method 

 and indifferent by the latter. Barley varieties did not appear to be equally effi- 

 cient in utilizing the additional adjacent space, while the removal of one or two 

 side border rows did not produce any significant change in the rank of the 

 wheat varieties. 



It is concluded that " in plats surrounded by alleys plants occupying an area at 

 least 1 ft. within the margins are affected by the additional adjacent space. 

 The indications are that, unless there is a considerable fluctuation in the 

 response of varieties to border effect, when grown in plats surrounded by alleys, 

 superior types may not be given their true rank in tests made in plats from 

 which borders are not removed before harvest. These results have led to the 

 adoption of the plan of removing the plants from an area at least 1 ft. wide 

 within the margins of variety test plats at the central and substations in 

 Minnesota. These borders are to be removed from the plats between the time 

 of fully heading and harvest." 



Factors affecting the depth of sowing various crops, F. S. Harris and H. J. 

 Maughan (Utah Sta. Bui. 164 U918), pp. 8-18, figs. 12).— Pot experiments are 

 described in which wheat, oats, Hint corn, barley, alfalfa, field peas, white 

 wax beans, sugar beets, and sorghum were planted at different depths in soil 

 maintained at varying moisture contents designated as low, medium, and high. 

 Ten seeds were sown at each of the first 8 in., and the number of se,eds germi- 

 nating in the soil, the length of the roots, the length of the tops, and the height 

 of the plants above ground were determined at 5, 10, 15, and 20 day periods 



