98 BOARD OF AGIUCULTUKE. [Pub. Doc. 



COM GROWING IN NEW ENGLAND. 



BY PROF. L. A. CLINTON, DIRECTOR STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERI- 

 MENT STATION, EAGLEVrLLE, CONN. 



At the present time the corn crop in America leads all 

 others, not only in its total value, but in the general interest 

 and popular enthusiasm with reference to its growth. Nearly 

 every experiment station has some line of work under way in 

 connection with corn breeding or corn feeding, and boys' and 

 girls' corn-growing clubs have become numerous. In the 

 teaching of agriculture in the public schools, corn is one of 

 the most valuable crops which can be studied. The reason 

 for this general interest in the corn crop is not difficult to 

 discern. There is no other crop which comes so near to being 

 a general-purpose crop as corn. No other crop, over such a 

 wide section of the country, can furnish the amount of food 

 product per acre, few crops are so free from disease or insect 

 pests, and but few crops are grown which are so generally 

 successful as the corn crop. 



While the total yield of corn for the United States is enor- 

 nions, far exceeding in value that of any other one crop, yet 

 the average yield of corn per acre for the United States and 

 for every section of the United States is ridiculously small. 

 To be snre, Connecticut leads in corn growing, as she does in 

 most other things, — her yield of corn per acre in 1909 being 

 greater than the yield in any other State, the enormous 

 amount being 41 bushels per acre! Massachusetts was not 

 far behind, but with the average yield per acre of 38 bushels, 

 she has nothing to boast of. We desire, however, that those 

 well-meaning public citizens who have become interested in 

 agriculture, and are telling about the decadence of agriculture 



