10 



THE WEED FACTOK IN THE CULTIVATION OF CORN. 



The cooperators entered into the work with enthusiasm, and as a 

 rule the tests were well conducted. Many experimenters were 

 visited each year by a representative of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 who advised with them on the subject. At the completion of the 

 tests detailed statements of the various phases of the experiment 

 were reported on special blanks furnished by the Department. Some 

 of the reports were incomplete or indicated that the work had not 



Fig. 2.— Typical appearance of the soil on an uncultivated plat of corn. 



been properly carried out. All such were discarded in the final 

 compilations. 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS IN CORN CULTIVATION. 



Probably the first agricultural experiment station, at least in this 

 country, to take note of the weed factor in cultivation was the New 

 York State station, at Geneva. The results are presented in the 

 annual report of that station for 1886. Sturtevant in discussing 

 these results says: 



If this experiment has a meaning, it is that cultivation is not beneficial to the corn 

 plant except so far as removing the weeds is concerned. Strangely enough, we have 

 during the existence of the station been unable to obtain decisive evidence in favoi 

 of cultivation. 



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