290 MAINi; AGRICULTURAL LXPLRIMLNT STATION. 191O. 



relative degree of earliness of the corn when seed substantially 

 uniform in respect to this quality is planted in different environ- 

 ments. 



5. These results point clearly to the great importance in the 

 production of sweet corn seed of the factor which has been 

 called by Cook * "local adjustment." This investigator found 

 that {loc. cit. p. 65) : "The growing of a variety of cotton in a 

 new locality is likely to bring about a distinct reduction in the 

 yield as well as in the quality of the fiber. The deterioration 

 has been found to be connected with an increase of diversity 

 among the individual plants.' Even when a carefully selected, 

 uniform stock is used for the experiment a much greater amount 

 of diversity may appear in a new place than when the same 

 stock is grown under accustomed conditions of the previous 

 locality where the variety was improved by selection." The 

 results of the farm distribution test appear to us to indicate 

 most strongly that essentially the same conditions obtain in sweet 

 corn as in cotton as described by Cook. This is particularly 

 true in regard to earliness and yield, less so in regard to the 

 quality of the corn for canning purposes. 



The importance of this factor of local adjustment in sweet 

 corn may be shown by the citation of specific evidence in addi- 

 tion to the general facts already brought out. In the first place 

 may be considered the cases where it was possible to compare 

 the selected Type I corn in a new locality (environment) with 

 another strain of seed well adjusted to that locality. In every 

 such case which came to. our notice in connection with the farm 

 distribution test it was plainly the case that our selected seed did 

 not do so well as the locally adjusted seed, even though the latter 

 might be of a strain or variety really inferior to our Type I, 

 when both were under such conditions as to give the best results. 

 Thus, as mentioned before (cf. p. 280) Messrs. J. H. and F. D.- 

 Martin of Rumford Point have a strain of sweet corn which they 

 have grown for seed for 20 years continuously. It is a good 

 though somewhat coarse grained sweet corn but very well 

 adjusted to local conditions. This is evidenced by its earliness, 

 uniformity and yielding quality. A small plot of our Type I 

 seed was planted by these gentlemen in 1909. It was almost .a 



* Cook, 0. F. Local Adjustment of Cotton Varieties. U. S. Dept. 

 Agr. Bur. Plant Ind. Bulletin 159, pp. 1-75, 1909. 



