UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1309 
Washington, D. C. T March, 1925 
EXPERIMENTS WITH SMALL GRAINS ON THE 
ARLINGTON EXPERIMENT FARM 
By John W. Taylor, Associate Agronomist, Office of Cereal Investigations, 
Bureau of Plant Industry 
CONTENTS 
Page Page 
History of the experiments 1 Experimental data___ 8 
Description of the Arlington Experiment Winter wheat 8 
Farm 2 Spring wheat 15 
Soil 2 Winter spelt and e. Timer 16 
Climatic conditions 2 Winter rye 17 
Experimental methods 7 Winter oats 20 
Preparation of the land 7 Winter barley 23 
Plat experiments 7 Comparison of grain crops 26 
Rates and dates of seeding 8 Summary 26 
HISTORY OF THE EXPERIMENTS 
Cereal experiments were begun by the Office of Cereal Investiga- 
tions at the Arlington Experiment Farm, near Rosslyn, Va., in 1907. ] 
In the earlier years the experiments consisted mainly of studies of 
varietal adaptation, rates of seeding, and the improvement of the 
principal fall-sown cereals by selection and breeding. More recently 
the scope of the plat experiments has been broadened. They now 
include a combined experiment on rate and date of seeding and seed- 
bed preparation and tests of several seed treatments for increasing 
the yield and controlling diseases, particularly the cereal smuts. The 
chief purpose of this bulletin is to report the results of the varietal 
and rate-of-seeding experiments with fall-sown cereals. 
In 1916 the results of the investigations conducted in the pre- 
ceding years were published in detail. 2 Many of the varieties then 
included have since been discarded and in their stead others have 
i The experiments here reported are for the 14-year period from 1910 to 1923, inclusive. H. B. Derr was 
in charge of the work during the crop years 1907 to 1911, T. R. Stanton from 1912 to 1915, A. D. Ellison in 
1916 and 1917, T. R. Stanton and W. C Eldridge in 1918, Henry P. Ames in 1919, and the writer since 
July, 1919. During the period from 1919 to 1923, inclusive, able assistance was rendered by A. P. Willis 
and J. P. Seaton, field assistants in the Office of Cereal Investigations. E. C. Butterfield, superintendent 
of the Arlington Experiment Farm, and J. H. Criswell, assistant superintendent, have cooperated in the 
conduct of the experiments, and their assistance and advice are gratefully acknowledged. 
; Stanton, T. R. Cereal experiments in Maryland and Virginia. U. S. Dept. A.gr. Bui. 336, 51 p., 6, 
fig. 1916. 
8880— 25t 1 1 
