New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 105 



AN EXPERIMENT TO DETERMINE HOW THE RE- 

 MOVAL OF THE LOWER LEAVES AFFECTS THE 

 YIELD OF CABBAGE PLANTS. 



In the experiments on the treatment of black rot by the removal 

 of diseased leaves it soon became evident to the writers that when- 

 ever there was a destructive outbreak of the disease it would be 

 necessary to remove larg-e numbers of leaves and this raised the 

 question as to what would be the efTect on the yield of the plants. 



The leaves of plants are important organs. It is in the leaves 

 that the inorganic food substances taken from the soil are worked 

 over into organic compounds which can be used by the plant to 

 make further growth. If the leaves are destroyed by disease, 

 insects or other agency the growth of the plant is checked. This 

 is a general law among leafy plants and there seems to be no good 

 reason for believing the cabbage plant to be an exception to the 

 rule. However, it is stoutly maintained by some farmers that the 

 removal of a few of the lower leaves of cabbage plants is not only 

 harmless but positively beneficial to the plants and tends to in- 

 crease the size of the heads. 



In order to get definite information on this point the following 

 experiment was made at Phelps, N. Y., in 1900: On the un- 

 treated half of the acre used for black rot experiments in 1900 

 (see p. 96) sixty-four rows were designated for use in the experi- 

 ment under consideration. There were 35 plants in each row. 

 They were of the variety Danish Ball Head and transplanted 

 July 3. From each plant in every alternate row the lower leaves 

 were removed as follows: 



August 9, 2 lower leaves removed from each plant. 



In the course of the season ten lower leaves were removed from 

 each plant in the alternate rows. On November 12 the crop was 

 harvested and the product of each row weighed separately. The 

 results are shown in the following table: 



