THICK SEEDIJfG OF MILO IN" THE SAN ANTONIO EEGION. 3 



appearance may be delayed until the plant is 18 inches or more in 

 height. Tillers seldom appear after the stems of the plants have 

 begun to develop, particidarly if the plants are left close enough 

 together to shield the lower parts from the light. The development 

 of tillers is largely controlled by the distance apart of the plants 

 and, to a lesser extent, by the soil and climatic conditions. Tillers 

 have small heads and are later in maturing than the main stalk. 



Branches indicate abnormal conditions and do not appear until the 

 plant is well along in its growth. They occur only when the plants 

 are spaced too far apart in the row or are supphed with an abundance 

 of moisture. Every node above the ground except the terminal node 

 may produce branches. The heads of the branches are still smaller 

 and later in maturing than those of the tillers. 



Branching is even more objectionable than tillering, as the ripening 

 season is stiU further extended. Branches occur in abundance only 

 when the plants are too far apart in the row and the temperature and 

 moisture conditions are exceptionally favorable for a heavy vegetative 

 growth during the latter part of the season. 



EXTENT OF SORGHUM-MIDGE DAMAGE DURING 1913 AND 1914. 



The season of 1913 was very favorable for the production of grain 

 sorghum. Although the rainfall was about 2 inches below normal, 

 the crop did not suffer severely from drought. The crop was weU 

 past the flowering stage before the sorghum midge appeared in suffi- 

 cient numbers to do serious damage. Consequently, the insect had 

 very little, if any, effect on the yield, even of the later plantings. 



On the other hand, the season of 1914 was particularly unfavorable. 

 The spring was unusually wet and cool, and, owing to these conditions 

 at and after planting time, such poor stands were obtained that it was 

 necessary to replant twice, which made the crop so late in coming to 

 flower that there was a rather severe infestation of the midge in all the 

 plats. This late flowering afforded an opportunity for determining 

 the effect on the yield of suppressing the tillers and branches. 



Suppressing the tillers, and thereby causing the plant as a whole to 

 flower more uniformly, was of little value as far as the sorghum midge 

 was concerned in 1913, but in 1914 the yields were extremely low on 

 the plats where the plants tillered and branched freely. These low 

 yields were due entirely to the fact that the heads of all the tillers and 

 ])ranches wore sterile, owing to the ravages of the midge. 



RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENTS. 



Kxpcriincnts were, (conducted at the San Antonio Experiment 

 Farm in 1013 and in 1914 to determine the effect of planting milo in 

 rowH at <liff<'r('nt distances apart and of thinning the pbinls to dif- 

 ferent distances witliin tlie row on the tillering, branching, iini- 

 forniity, <late of i-ipeiiing, imd yiehl of gi-;iiii. 'I'hes(^ experiments 

 are reported ntid (li-^eiisscd id this billietiii. 



