ANNUAL MEETING OHIO STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 75 



in the tests, although the same varieties were not always grown on the same 

 field. By taking the average of all the varieties, where the seed was grown 

 elsewhere than on the farm, and comparing this with the average of the 

 checks, which were planted with home-grown seed, it is possible to get 

 some idea of the influence of or adaptation to local conditions. An average 

 of 165 different tests located in all parts of the State, gave a yield of 1.7 bush- 

 els in favor of the checks or home-grown seed. When we consider that there 

 were, according to the Year Book of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, 3,960,000 acres of corn in Ohio in 1910, we can easily see that a dif- 

 ference in yield of only 1.7 bushels means several million dollars to the 

 farmers of this State. No clalim of absolute accuracy is made for these fig- 

 ures, but they enable us to appreciate the importance of the adaptation of 

 varieties to local conditions, among which the soil is probably the most im- 

 portant. 



AN ILLINOIS WHEAT EXPERIMENT. 



Bulletin 121 of the Illinois Experiment Station reports the results of 

 variety tests of wheat. These were conducted in three sections of the state, 

 northern, central and southern. The first two were located on a black 

 prairie silt loam of marked fertility; the last upon a white, very acid silt loam 

 of much lower agricultural value. As a result of three years' trial it is stated 

 that the Turkey Red variety stood first or among the very best upon the 

 black prairie soil, not only in Illinois but also in Iowa. However, upon the 

 light-colored soil this variety yielded 5.2 bushels per acre less than the Ful- 

 caster, a variety which had been grown on this soil for a number of years. 

 If these wheat variety tests had been conducted upon the "black soils" alone 

 and the Turkey Red, which proved to be the best yielding variety on these 

 soils, had been distributed to the farmers, situated upon the "white soils" in 

 southern Illinois, it would have resulted in the loss to them of approximately 

 one-third of their wheat crop; as the Turkey Red gave a yield of 11.4 bushels 

 compared with an average of 16.6 for the Fulcaster. This experiment brings 

 out very forcibly the necessity for testing out the variety upon the soil upon 

 which it is to be sown. 



It is very interesting to note in this connection that the Turkey Red wheat, 

 which gave the largest yield at the Illinois Experiment Station, is one of the 

 very poorest yielders on the Ohio Experiment Farm at Wooster. -This variety 

 has also been tried in North Carolina and Pennsylvania and has proved one of 

 the lowest yielders in both states. The only soils in this State upon which this 

 variety has given anything like a satisfactory yield are the black soils, which are 

 not very different from those in Illinois. 



THE CLOSE RELATION BETWEEN THE TOBACCO CROP AND THE SOIL. 



None of our great crops has been so highly specialized as tobacco. The 

 demands of the trade have forced "this upon the farmers. Tobacco does not go 

 upon the market simply as tobacco, but as smoking, chewing, filler and wrapper 

 tobacco. In other words, the quality of the leaf determines the use to which 

 it will be put and this in turn depends very largely upon the character of the 

 soil. Bright yellow tobacco, which is used for smoking and cigarettes, cannot 

 be produced upon a heavy-textured soil and a single trial will be sufficient to 

 convince the most unconvincible farmer. It is soon discovered that the leaf 

 has become too thick and dark for this purpose. No such trade conditions, 

 however, exist in regard to wheat, cotton, corn, and oats. The principal . 

 thing with these crops is quantity rather than quality and the farmers generally 



