104 
Research Bulletin No. S 
in the lower sections. Only in the first and second feet was the 
moisture reduced to the wilting coefficient. 
In the Hastings cylinder, which carried one early plant and 
two late plants, the first ripened May 18, producing a single 
bean. On May 30 one of the remaining plants was in blossom 
but on June 6 both plants were dead. The cylinder was opened 
16 days later. In the distribution of roots and in the moisture 
conditions this very closely resembled the Holdrege cylinder. 
The single plant in the Lincoln cylinder ripened two pods 
with 5 beans on May 11. It continued green and blossomed 
again from May 18 to June 8, but was dead by June 27 without 
having formed any more pods. The cylinder was opened on that 
day. Roots were quite abundant to the bottom of the cylinder, 
but not in nearly the quantity found in the H O cylinder. The 
moisture of the subsoil, except in parts of the second and third 
foot, where fine roots were not numerous, was reduced quite uni- 
formly to 2.5 to 3.7 per cent of free water, or to 2.0 to 3.0 per 
cent below the wilting coefficient. (Figure 27.) 
The crevice between soil column and cylinder wall w r as en- 
tirely wanting in the H O cylinder and reached to only 5 and 6 
inches respectively in the Wauneta and McCook cylinders, to 27 
and 18 inches respectively in the Holdrege and Hastings cylin- 
ders, and in all cases was very small. In the Lincoln cylinder it 
extended to 18 inches. 
MAIZE. 
Four germinated kernels of a white flint variety obtained from 
the Sulphur Spring Valley Dry Farm were planted on February 
20 in each of two cylinders, Nos. 24 and 76, w4uch had been 
filled with H O surface soil and H O subsoil as described on pages 
80 and 81 . Four days later all the plants were up, and at the end 
of another week they were thinned to the most vigorous one in 
each cylinder. The two plants did well until the latter part of 
March, when the one in No. 76 from some unknown cause received 
a severe check. 
On April 11 that in No. 24 was in bloom and the next day the 
silk appeared. On April 29 the plant was 54 inches high and had 
7 leaves. On May 18 all the leaves were dead, and 12 days later 
the plant, then quite dry, was harvested and the cylinder opened. 
The plant had formed a very small ear bearing 13 kernels. 
The plant in cylinder No. 76 recovered somewhat during April, 
and on the 29th of that month was 23 inches high. It had already 
been in tassel two weeks but the silk did not appear until May 
6, before which time all the pollen had fallen. All of the plant 
except the ear had dried up by May 18 but this was still green 
when the cylinder was opened on May 30. 
