914 INDIAN CORN CULTURE. 
a larger crop was secured by detasseling. Later 
investigations, however, in most cases gave 
evidence of reduced crop yield due to this 
practice. In 1888 Shelton of Kansas founda 
loss of nearly 10 per cent due to detasseling.* 
Roberts in 1890, at Cornell University, how- 
ever, secured a gain of 50 per cent due to de- 
tasseling, and this experiment attracted wide 
attention to the subject.; Further work at 
Cornell seemed to corroborate this result in a 
measure. In 1892 there was a gain in weight 
of good ears amounting to 15 per cent, and of 
poor ears of 26 per cent on the detasseled rows, 
besides being a gain in number of ears.t 
At the Illinois station, however, several years 
of experimentation have shown no advantage 
to be derived from this process, but if anything 
a loss. Atthe Nebraska station, a decided loss 
is shown from detasseling.§ Ten detasseled 
rows 20 rods long each gave a yield of 528 Ibs. 
of corn; 10 alternate rows, not detasseled, 1,220 
Ibs., and 20 undisturbed rows elsewhere in the 
field, 2,369 lbs. The cost of detasseling was 
estimated at $1.25 per acre. At the Kansas 
station in 1891 the results were adverse to detas- 
*Kansas experiment station. Report of 1888, p. 27. 
{+Cornell University experiment station. Bulletin 25, 
1890. 
{ Ibid., Bulletin 49, December, 1892, p. 317. 
2 Nebraska experiment station, Bulletin No. 25, Dec. 1, 
1892, p. 4. Ἶ 
