12 



THE WEED FACTOR IN THE CULTIVATION OF CORN. 



ment did not receive a fair trial, since, to quote the bulletin men- 

 tioned, page 129, "the weed pulling by hand loosened the soil to a 

 considerable extent, for they were not pulled until large enough to 

 be easily taken hold of, and they were always plentiful." In a recent 

 letter Prof. Sanborn describes the treatment of the "scarified" plats, 

 showing that it was practically identical with the nontilled treatment 

 of our work. In this connection, therefore, the scarified plats should 

 be compared with either the shallow-tilled or medium- tilled plats. 



It will be noted in Table II that the average figures of all the 

 years for the scarified plats is 58.87 bushels of grain and 3,036 pounds 

 of fodder, as compared with 52.91 bushels of grain and 3,487 pounds 

 of fodder for the shallow-tilled plats and 57.31 bushels of grain and 

 3,431 pounds of fodder for the medium-tilled plats. 



Table II.- — Results of experiments in corn tillage in Utah. 





Yield per acre- 



Year. 



Shallow 

 tillage. 



Medium 



tillage. 



Deep tillage. 



No tillage. 



Mulched with 

 dirt. 



Scuffle hoe 

 (scarified). 





Fodder. 



Grain. 



Fodder. 



Grain. 



Fodder. 



Grain. 



Fodder. 



Grain. 



Fodder. 



Grain. 



Fodder. 



Grain. 



1890\ , 

 1892/ ••-" 



1893 



1894 



1895 



Pounds. 



1,704 



1,666 

 2,800 



Bush. 



16.75 



37.52 

 51.81 

 57.14 

 79.04 

 75. 22 



52.91 



Pounds. 



1,981 



2,433 

 3,467 



"*6,'606' 

 2,667 



3,431 



Bush. 



15.80 



54.18 

 69.22 

 54.09 

 75.14 

 75.41 



57.31 



Pounds. 



1,169 



2,866 

 3,067 



""9,"600' 

 1,867 



3,714 



Bush. 



27.08 



61.11 

 52.76 

 50.67 

 66.66 

 79.41 



57.45 



Pounds. 



1,574 



2,933 

 3,600 



"'6,' 227' 

 2,667 



3,400 



Bush. 



12.35 



67.23 

 52.38 

 63.43 

 71.05 

 44.75 



51.86 



Pounds. 

 1,270 

 2.844 

 3,067 



"8,'i60 

 3,467 



3,762 



Bush. 



16.69 



76.18 

 56.38 

 60.75 

 76.57 

 48.75 



55.89 



Pounds. 



2,286 



2,0^0 

 2,800 



"4,~36o" 

 3, 733 



3,036 



Bush. 



23.10 



43.60 

 57 33 

 72.19 



1896 



1897 



Average 



8,067 

 3,200 



3,487 



69 33 

 77.69 



58.87 



Average for the two years. 



EXPERIMENTS OF THE BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



In 1905 the senior writer collected the early data of the State agri- 

 cultural experiment stations and conducted a test on corn cultivation 

 at Ithaca, N. Y. On becoming a member of the staff of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture he carried on similar tests in 1906 in cooperation 

 with three experiment stations and in 1907 with four stations, one 

 individual, and the Arlington Experimental Farm of the Department. 

 In 1908 the work was conducted by four stations, one individual, and 

 the test farm at Arlington. In 1909, 1910, and 1911 it was carried 

 on in cooperation with various farmers in different parts of the United 

 States. 



Figure 3 shows the shocked corn from the plats at the Arlington 

 Experimental Farm in 1908. One of the shocks is from a cultivated 

 plat, the next one from an uncultivated plat, and thus alternating 

 through the series. Figure 4 shows the ear corn from the same 



257 



