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



ONE PLANT PER HILL, ROWS 7 FEET APART. 



Table XIX shows the agronomic data from the fourth section of 

 the rate-of -seeding and spacing experiments, in which the hills con- 

 tained one plant each and the rows were spaced 7 feet apart. This 

 method has been used in the 5-year period from 1914 to 1918, in- 

 clusive. It contained six rates of seeding each year except in 1915, 

 when there were only five rates. These rates in most cases are di- 

 rectly comparable with those in the first and second methods con- 

 sidered and shown in Tables XIII and XV, respectively. The total 

 number of plants to the acre is approximately the same at any given 

 rate in all three methods, but they are grouped differently in the rows. 

 In this fourth method the plants stand twice as thick in the rows, 

 but the rows are twice as far apart. 



In 1914 the sowings at the six rates presented stands varying in 

 row space per hill or plant from 2.1 inches at the thickest rate to 

 6.3 inches at the thinnest rate. This was a difference of 4.2 inches 

 of row space per hill between the extreme rates. In 1915 the thick- 

 est rate had 2.8 inches of row space to the hill and the thinnest rate 

 8.1 inches, which was a difference of 5.5 inches between these ex- 

 tremes. There were five rates only in 1915. These represent the 

 extreme rates used in the previous year, but omit one of the inter- 

 mediate rates. The six rates used in 1917 and in 1918 are approxi- 

 mately the same. 



The crop shows no effect on growth on account of the different 

 rates of seeding in this method of spacing the rows under normal 

 seasonal conditions, such as existed in 1914 and 1915. In unfavorable 

 dry seasons, growth was slower at the thick rates than at the thinner 

 ones, which prolongs the vegetative and total growing periods. 

 This was the case in 1917 and 1918, when more time was required to 

 mature by the crop sown at the thick rates than at the thin rates. 



The influence the stand has on the production of suckers is illus- 

 trated again by this method of spacing the rows and plants. It ap- 

 pears that a stand of about 2 inches of row space to the plant prac- 

 tically eliminates suckering, even in years when conditions are favor- 

 able to their growth. The percentage of suckers increases as the 

 stand decreases in all the methods of spacing the plants. 



The thin rates in rows spaced 7 feet apart developed a much 

 larger percentage of suckers than was developed in rows spaced 3.5 

 feet apart having the same number of plants in the row. The stand 

 with G inches of row space to the plant in rows spaced 7 feet apart 

 produced an average of 18.3 per cent of suckers in the 4-year period 

 from 1915 to 1918, inclusive, while the G-inch stand in the rows spaced 

 3.5 feet apart produced an average of 11.8 per cent. The 9-inch 

 stand in the rows spaced 7 feet apart produced an average of 37.7 



