842 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 May, 1902. 
before the crop could mature prevented this from being fully carried out, all the 
varieties ripening prematurely. During the whole period of growth the total 
rainfall amounted to 4°850 inches. As most of this fell shortly after planting, 
an even germination resulted, and the young crop made good headway. 
Unfortunately, however, when that period of growth was reached when success 
so much depends upon the crop getting a sufficient supply of moisture, ver 
little rain fell, and that little only im drizzling showers doing little or no good. 
Had it not been that attention was directed to the conserving of the moisture 
already existing in the soil by means of frequent shallow cultivation, thus 
forming a very beneficial earth mulch, the returns would in all probabihty 
have been zzl. This “ dust blanket” is equally efficacious in the culture of fruit 
trees, vines, and other crops which admit of cultivation. Care must, however, - 
be taken, in scuffling shallow-rooting crops such as maize, not to stir too deep, 
for if the roots are lacerated more harm than good will result from the practice. 
The following table gives a detail of results obtained, these being a good 
deal short of what they would have been had the season been a good one :— 
TABLE I. 
2 Dat ie nee URemireeelpner (ees 
| : ae =, — oes 
aa <2 | 83 (8s | @ |&Ee5 
Wh ieee 3 ; | Sta os |sZ 3 ES 
Name. St 9 = 3| 22 | oA | 38 & |=eae 
Sown, | 2 g 5| o8 | de |Su,| & |esa8 
3 e | | 32 | 5] |see| € | ooes 
o | al B Ee = & gon 
coerce: ee eet to — 
Lb. Inches.| Inches. 
Legal Tender Le ... | 12 Aug. 2 Sept. 10 Jan. | Nil 26 56 13 4°850 139 
Early Yellow Dent eh OPA py 7 10a i 20 564 12 ” ” 
Riley’s Favourite...  ...| 12 ,, yh iE} 7) = 20 58 13 ” i 
Leaming ... an sei tes ay 2, 1B, 19 60 126 ” ” 
Golden Beauty... ...| 12 ,, v4 13 ies pe 19 59 13'3 ” ” 
E. W. Horsetooth ...  ...| 12 ,, 2a 1G} ¢ 19 60 12 ” ” 
Piasa Queen a a ey 5, ane Luar i 17 58 124 ” » 
It will be seen from the above that Legal Tender heads the list as giving 
the best returns, all the other varieties showing remarkably little variation from 
one another in their yield per acre. 
EXPERIMENTS wWiTH SPECIALLY SELECTED SEEDS. 
Experiments were also carried out with large versus small seed. This 
consisted in carefully selecting the largest seeds from the centre of the cob, and 
the smallest from the end, and sowing an equal area of each. The method of 
sowing and the conditions were exactly similar to the first-detailed experi- 
ments. 
This experiment, I may point out, was not undertaken with any idea of 
proving that large seeds would produce larger seeds and cobs in return and the 
smaller in like proportion. The method of selecting the largest seed from any 
individual plant with a view to improving the strain is of little or no value, as 
it will be found that although individual plants may differ from each other in 
respect to transmission of character, yet from the same plant the results obtained 
will in almost every case be the same whether the seed be large or small. It is 
well known, however, that large seeds germinate a little earlier and give slightly 
more vigorous plants during the first week or so of growth. It was this fact 
that led me to experiment with those seeds in the hope of finding out whether, 
in the event of the weather ypEoTang at all adverse during the germination stage, 
this point would have any effect on the ultimate yield. The climatic conditions 
were, however, congenial, there being an abundant supply of moisture for 
germination purposes. As expected, the large seeds germinated first, and a 
little more evenly than the small, but each sort gave asnear as possible a full per- 
centage of germination. In regard to after growth no difference was noticeable, 
and the respective yields were expected to be about equal. The returns as 
detailed in the following tables, however, show, in many instances, a wide 
