Feb. 4, 1918 



New-Place Effect in Maize 



239 



Ability to produce a stand may legitimately be considered one of the 

 manifestations of greater vigor. That it is a definite and positive factor 

 is shown in Tables III and IV, in which the relative stands are compared. 

 With all four kinds a comparison of the relative stand at the two local- 

 ities is in favor of the transferred seed. In the Boone variety the transfer 

 of seed has resulted in an 8 per cent increase of stand, a difference 

 nearly four times the probable error. Since the analysis of the compar- 

 ative stand of local and transferred seed shows that the differences are 

 not accidental, but are consistently in favor of the transferred seed, it 

 would seem that yield per row is a more reliable measure of comparative 

 vigor than yield per plant. Yield per row is the measure of the practical 

 results, and from this standpoint it is seen that all four strains showed 

 an increase in yield as a result of transfer of seed. In Texas, where 

 there was a definite tendency for an increased number of plants in a row 

 to reduce the yield per plant, yield per plant is obviously ill calculated 

 to bring out the real difference in vigor. 



Table IV. — Average stand of plants secured from Maryland-grown seed expressed as a 

 percentage of the mean of Maryland and Texas-grown seed 



EXPERIMENTS IN 1915 AND 1916 



The results of the 191 2 and 191 3 experiments were so at variance with 

 current belief that it was thought best to obtain additional evidence 

 before publishing. A somewhat similar experiment was therefore 

 planned and carried out during the years 191 5 and 191 6. The same 

 varieties were used as in the previous experiment, but the localities 

 were changed by substituting Greenville, Tex., and Sacaton, Ariz., for 

 Victoria, Tex., and Stockton, Kans. 



Crop failure at Greenville again limited the experiment to two locali- 

 ties: Lanham, Md., and Sacaton, Ariz. At Sacaton the temperatures 

 are high, and there is practically no rainfall during the growing season, 

 the crop being grown by means of irrigation. 



To eliminate differences due to irregularities in the stand of plants, a 

 different system of planting was adopted. Seed from both localities 

 were planted in each hill, the seed from the two sources being identified 

 by their positions in the hill. At harvest the measurements were con- 

 fined to the hills which contained plants from both Maryland- and Ari- 



