TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART X 513 



per acre for the closest, or 33 by 33 inch planting. In central Illinois, just 

 as in the experiments carried on in the northern part of the State, the 

 Dlats planted with two kernels per hill increased in average yield from the 

 widest planting to the second thickest, the yields being 47.7 bushels and 

 55 bushels per acre, respectively. The plats with three kernels in the 

 hill ranged in average yield per acre from 46.8 bushels for the closest plant- 

 ing to 52.3 bushels for the 39.6 by 39.6 inch and the 36 by 44 inch dis- 

 tances. The plats planted 36 by 36 inches with two kernels per hill yielded 

 2.2 bushels per acre more than the plats planted 39.6 by 39.6 inches with 

 three kernels per hill. 



The yields in these distance experiments were regrouped to determine 

 whether the distance of planting giving the highest yield on land produc- 

 ing more than 50 bushels will also give the highest yield on land pro- 

 ducing less than 50 bushels per acre. The data from the northern fields 

 show that the best yields were taken from the plats with three kernels 

 per hill, and also from those on which the hills were practically 36 inches 

 apart each way. In the central part of the State the highest average yield 

 from land producing over 50 bushels per acre was secured by planting two 

 kernels per hill at a distance of 33 by 36 inches. Almost the same yield 

 was obtained where the hills were planted 39.6 inches apart each way with 

 three kernels per hill. On land yielding less than 50 bushels per acre prac- 

 tically the highest average yield was secured where two kernels were 

 planted per hill in rows 36 inches apart in each direction. 



In summarizing the results it is advised that on all ordinary cornbelt 

 land of the northern part of Illinois the hills be planted not more than 

 36 inches apart, and with at least three kernels per hill, and that in cen- 

 tral Illinois, on the common brown silt loam prairie lands, sufficiently pro- 

 ductive to produce over 50 bushels per acre, corn be checked 39.6 inches 

 apart and three kernels planted per hill, while on the common prairie land 

 not generally producing 50 bushels per acre, as, for instance, average corn- 

 belt land, th-e hills should be 36 inches apart and only two kernels planted 

 per hill. 



REPLANNING A FARM FOR PROFIT. 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture Farmers Bulletin, 370. 



IXTRODUCTIOX. 



Habit frequently continues a type of farming in a community long after 

 that type has 'become unprofitable. Wheat farming on fertile virgin soil 

 is usually profitable, but there are many instances in the United States 

 where farmers have continued to grow wheat for a number of years after 

 it had ceased to be a profitable crop. The same is true of cotton. A two- 

 year rotation of corn and oats has been continued in portions of the corn 

 belt, notwithstanding the fact that it is often unprofitable, little or no 

 money being made on either crop. Frequently these unprofitable types 

 of farming continue through a series of years or until the property changes 

 hands or new methods are introduced. The farmer finds it hard to change 

 a lifelong habit. 

 33 



