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The Davis-Purdue Agricultural Center (DPAC)
The Davis-Purdue Agricultural Center (DPAC) includes 460 tillable
acres and 100 managed forested acres (Herbert Davis Forestry Farm)
in Randolph County, Indiana. Mrs. Martha F. Davis donated the
original farm to Purdue University in 1917 in memory of her son.
DPAC's soils are typical of those found in eastern Indiana, making
the research results of particular use to farmers in that area.
In 1926, forestry professor Burr N. Prentice divided the 100 acres
of the virgin Davis-Purdue Research Forest into 55 quadrants.
With painstaking attention to detail, he numbered, mapped, described,
and tagged every tree with a stem diameter larger than 4 inches.
Prentice's work and the work of Purdue foresters after him have
made the Davis Research Forest the largest and oldest mapped forests
in North America, resulting in its designation as a Registered
Natural Landmark.
Today,
researchers from Purdue's Departments of Agronomy, Agricultural
and Biological Engineering, Botany and Plant Pathology, and Entomology
study corn, soybeans, and wheat at DPAC, focusing on:
- Soil fertility
- Crop diseases
- Weed control
- Insect problems
- Site specific agriculture studies
- Variable rate applications of phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen and lime
- Collection of intensive soil and crop data
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