Feb., 1926] 



PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS 



17 



seed from other states, seed was supplied by Dr. Butler to all the county 

 agents in sufficient quantity so that plots of upwards of 0.5 acre could be 

 laid out. Seed was from four sources: two in New Hampshire, one in 

 Maine and one in Vermont. The Maine seed was from a productive 

 strain that had been grown by the farmer supplying the stock for more 

 than twenty years; the Vermont seed was from one of the best growers, 

 and was reputed to be not only very free from degeneration diseases 

 but to be especially productive; the New Hampshire seed was obtained 

 from a grower in Coos and Strafford counties respectively. Provision 

 was also made to include the seed used by the farmers on whose farms the 

 plots were established. 



The plots were laid out as follows: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 11th 

 rows, northern New Hampshire seed; 3rd row, Vermont; 5th row, Maine; 

 7th row, southern New Hampshire; 9th row, farmer's own seed. The 

 northern New Hampshire seed was, therefore, used as the comparison 

 strain, and the rows were sufficiently numerous so that the probable error 

 of the mean yield could be calculated and thus a fair idea secured of the 

 probable accuracy of the data. In calculating yields the mean of the 

 two rows of the comparison strain adjoining each of the other strains was 

 used as the basis and taken as 100. 



Table VI — Maximum, mean and minimum amount of degeneration diseases found in 



county demonstration plots in 1924 



* Minimum in each case was 0. 



The data given are for eight plots in the case of the field inspection 

 and for five plots in the case of the yield data. 



In studying the data for the field inspection given in Table VI, it will 

 be noticed that the northern New Hampshire seed compares favorably 

 with that from Maine and Vermont. The Maine seed was quite free 

 from leaf -roll, but was rather high in mosaic. The northern New Hamp- 

 shire and the Vermont seed had about the same amount of mosaic and 

 leaf-roll, about 0.5 per cent of each in the case of the former, and 0.75 per 

 cent of each in the case of the latter. There was a slight amount of yellow 

 dwarf in the Vermont seed and very nearly 0.5 per cent on the average in 

 the southern New Hampshire seed, and about the same amount in the 

 stock the farmers were themselves growing. The southern New Hamp- 

 shire seed behaved irregularly. In one plot it showed serious weakness; 

 in another it behaved as well as the best, but on the average it must be 

 admitted that it did not behave so satisfactorily as the seed from the 

 northern part of the state. The farmer's own seed showed considerable 

 differences in behavior in the different plots but on the whole was quite 

 good. 



