Morrow Plots

The Morrow Plots is an experimental agricultural field at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Named for Professor George E. Morrow, it is the oldest such field in the United States and the second oldest in the world. It was established in 1876 as the first experimental corn field at an American college and continues to be used today, although with three plots of much reduced size, instead of the original ten half-acre lots. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark on May 23, 1968. The fields are managed by the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences.

The Morrow Plots occupy a central position on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , between the Main Quad and the South Quad. They are bounded on the south by West Gregory Drive, the north by the Observatory, the east by the Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, and the west by the Undergraduate Library. The plots currently consist of six small fields, each one-tenth of an acre in size. The two northernmost plots have been continuously planted in maize since 1876. The middle plots were originally planted in a rotation of corn and oats, with the oats replaced by soybeans in 1968. The southern plots were originally planted in a rotation of three years corn followed by three years meadow; this was replaced in 1901 by a rotation of corn, oats, and clover, and in 1953 by corn, oats, and alfalfa.

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