The Value and Application of Growth Curves to Field Plat Experiments 1

In any experiment, field plat or otherwise, it is good practice to accumulate data on as many phenomena as may be measured or visualized by the experimenter. Not infrequently data on points of .apparently little immediate significance are found to be of considerable value in the final analysis and interpretation of the results. More or less standardized notes are taken by most workers in variety test and other type of field plat experiments. Such notes deal in most instances mainly with the characteristics of headed or mature plants. The yield per plat is without doubt the most significant and valuable criterion of field plat results. A complete set of notes is often of value, however, in arriving at some workable basis for explaining the superior or inferior performance, as the case may be, of a variety or strain or plat treated in any specified manner. Aside from the time interval required by plants to complete the period from emergence to heading, little attention is usually given to the exact course of development of plants grown on field plats during the true vegetation phase. Yet, the final performance of crops is to a large •degree determined by their reaction to prevailing climatic conditions throughout that stage.