144 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I9I4. 



the same as used on the oat plots in the two preceding seasons. 

 The fertilizer was broadcasted and harrowed in before seeding 

 as in the previous year. 



TREATMENT OF THE SEED. 



Each year all the grain raised at Highmoor is recleaned and 

 graded before it is sown or offered for sale. The cleaning is 

 done with an ordinary fanning mill. This removes all the light, 

 unfilled or immature grains. This practice is undoubtedly of 

 great value and if it were followed by the farmers of the state 

 it would result in better stands and better grain. 



Just before sowing the oats are treated with a formalin solu- 

 tion to kill the loose smut spores which may be clinging to the 

 grain. In this treatment a bag containing the oats is immersed 

 for twenty minutes in a solution containing one pint of com- 

 mercial formalin (40 percent) to 50 gallons of water. The 

 oats are then spread out to dry so that they may be sown in the 

 drill. This method has proved very successful. There have 

 been practically no smutted heads in any of our plots. 



SHAPE OF PLOTS AND METHODS OF SEEDING. 



The shape of the one-tenth acre plots varied in different years 

 according to the fields upon which they were planted. In gen- 

 eral the length of these plots was always several (5 to 12) times 

 its width. On the other hand the one-fortieth acre plots were 

 all in the form of a square, each side of which was 33 feet long. 

 It has been the practice in most variety tests in this country to 

 use long narrow plots. If, as is usually the case, cultivated 

 pathways are allowed between these plots the plants on the 

 margin grow much more vigorously than those in the interior. 

 In the case of small plots the total yield may be very greatly 

 affected by the proportionate number of these marginal plants. 

 It has recently been shown by one of us* that the marginal area 

 is reduced to a minimum in plots in the form of a square. In 

 such plots there is much less chance for the yield to be affected 



^Barber, C. W. Note on the Influence of Shape and Size of Plots in 

 Tests of Varieties of Grain. Ann. Rept. Maine Agr. Expt. Stat. 1914, 

 pp. 76-84. (Bulletin No. 226). 



