THICK SEEDING OF MILO IN THE SAN ANTONIO REGION. 17 
was approximately one week. This is of profound importance in 
escaping injury from the sorghum midge. It has been found at the 
San Antonio Experiment Farm that a few days' delay in the time of 
flowering may result in the almost complete destruction of the crop 
by this insect. This is strongly emphasized in the 1914 results. 
Thick seeding, then, by insuring that the plants will be close together 
within the row, is favorable in its effect upon the maturity of the crop. 
THICK SEEDING AND CROP YIELD. 
From what has been stated about the favorable effect of thick 
seeding upon the stand and maturity of the crop, it would be expected 
that the yield would be favorably affected also. This expectation 
was fully realized in the 1913 experiments and strongly emphasized 
again in the 1914 experiments, as indicated in Table III, which shows 
that the yield increased consistently as the spacing of the plants 
within the row decreased from 24 inches to 2 inches. 
THICK SEEDING AND RAINFALL. 
It has been supposed by many that the rate of seeding of grain 
crops should always be greatly decreased in regions of low rainfall. 
This supposition is probably not always well founded, because most 
grain crops tend to offset thin seeding by tillering. Early and uniform 
ripening is frequently of great importance in dry regions, because it 
assists the crop in evading midseason droughts and also, in many 
cases, in escaping insect injury. It seems that thin stands promote 
excessive tillering of milo, with resulting lateness and lack of uniform- 
ity in ripening. (See figs. 5 and 6.) It has also been shown in Table 
II that increasing the distance between rows has little, if any, effect 
on the production of tillers. It seems, therefore, that where the 
question of moisture is an acute one, the conditions should be met 
by increasing the distance between the rows rather than that between 
the plants within the row. 
If the moisture supply could be controlled so that it would be 
uniform from year to year, there is a certain distance apart that the 
rows might be planted to get the maximum yield, which in no way 
has any connection with the distance apart of the plants within the 
row, even where the rainfall is limited. Large plants with several 
tillers may actually suffer more during a dry period than several 
plants each with only a single stalk occupying the same space, 
because where each stalk has its own rooting system it can use the 
moisture more effectively. 
TIME OF THINNING. 
For the purpose of determining the effect of thinning to 12 inches 
apart at various dates on the number of tillers and branches, a small 
area was devoted to this test. The rate of seeding used in this test 
