SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETING. 201 



tempts to assert its independence. All improvement comes 

 through variation, not heredity, and wise is he who guards con- 

 ditions and is able to seize the ear, or ears, showing improve- 

 ment and then fix the newer and better type by a system of 

 careful selection. If you are seeking either for type or largest 

 production, you cannot afford to go far from home for seed. 

 Sending out of the State for seed, or to those living under 

 dift'erent soil conditions in the State, is a ruinous policy, simply 

 for the reason that corn is so peculiarly influenced by environ- 

 ment. Better by far take what you have and gradually weed- 

 out the objectionable features, lengthen the ears, hasten matur- 

 ity, and improve in every essential. The whole problem is in 

 the hands of the individual grower. 



I want corn yielding from eleven to twelve per cent protein, 

 where the average is ten. Protein is the most valuable item of 

 food in the corn, and yet we are not considering it when select- 

 ing our seed. I want my crib-dry corn to shell from 60 to 6 1 lbs. 

 out of every 70 of corn on the cob, and this upon a 12 per cent 

 water basis means 88 pounds of shelled corn out of every one 

 hundred of corn and cob. 



There is no question but that the application of 350 lbs. of 

 good corn fertilizer, not less than 3 per cent nitrogen, the very 

 last of July, at the last cultivation, between the rows, is the 

 most profitable step for the grower to take, and pays an im- 

 portant part in fixing the protein content. 



What shape of an ear do you want, — one long or short, taper- 

 ing or cylindrical, one from the bin or from selected stalks in 

 the fields? If you cling to the cylindrical type of ear in flint 

 corn you will inevitably reduce length and possibility of yield. 

 The score card as now arranged plays sad havoc with the utility 

 corn crop. There is a symmetry to the well tipped cylindrical 

 ear not to be found in the tapering, yet I would prefer the long 

 ear with one-half inch of cob extending beyond the large well 

 filled rows to the shorter fully tipped point. 



In a five year test, the Ohio Experiment Station found that 

 with five varieties the long ears produced an average of 3.97 

 bushels more corn than the short ears. I believe it more neces- 

 sary that each grower have in his mind a type clearly defined, 

 towards which he is working, than that he follow the type 

 established by his neighbor. 



