12 BULLETIN 836, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



pared for immediate use. The pressure of other work prevented 

 breaking new sod in time for the 1915 crop, so the same land was 

 used as in 1914. Later in the season more sod was broken. This sod 

 land was fallowed and used for the 1916 crop. In 1917 the varietal 

 experiment followed the same crop, and the other experiments fol- 

 lowed cowpeas. In 1918 the varietal experiment followed cotton, 

 and the other experiments followed broom corn. 



METHOD OF SEEDING. 



A 2-row combined corn and cotton drill fitted with sorghum plates 

 was used for sowing the crop from 1914 to 1916, inclusive. Since 

 then a 2-row drill fitted with a special plate, which is thinner than 

 the ordinary sorghum plate, has been used. This plate contains 36 

 holes, each three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter. The feed was 

 run on high gear, which drops at intervals of about 3 inches. It 

 was desired to have only one kernel dropped at a time, and the 

 above-described plate was designed to accomplish that end; but in 

 many cases two and occasionally three kernels were dropped, be- 

 cause the kernels vary in size. 



Broom-corn seed usually remains inclosed in the glumes or hulls, 

 but some seed is dehulled by the thrasher. Seeds free from glumes 

 will pass through a much smaller hole than the seed remaining in 

 the hulls. This makes a drop of a single kernel each time impossible 

 where the dehulled seeds are mixed and the holes in the plates are 

 large enough to drop seeds covered with a hull. 



Seeding was done at a rate heavy enough to insure a thick stand 

 under normal conditions, with the idea of obtaining a stand suffi- 

 cient for these experiments if the conditions were unfavorable. 

 When the plants were from 6 to 10 inches high the plats were 

 thinned by hand to the stands desired in the different experiments. 



DATES WHEN THE CHOPS WERE SOWN. 



The dates on which the crops in the varietal, rate-of -seeding, and 

 spacing experiments were sown each year are as follows: In 1914, 

 all three experiments were sown on May 14. In 1915 the varietal 

 and the rate-of-seeding experiments were sown on May 25 and the 

 spacing experiment on the following day. In 1916 the spacing ex- 

 periment was sown on May 19 and the other two on May 22. In 

 1917 the spacing experiment was sown on May 18 and the others 

 on May 24. In 1918 the varietal and rate-of-seeding experiments 

 Avere sown on May 27 and the spacing experiment on June 3. 



METHODS OF COLLECTING DATA. 



The data on plant and stalk spaces and on the occurrence of 

 suckers and heads were obtained by actual counts of the plants, 



