DAIRY MEETING. 65 



be diverted from this to other profitable cash crops and its place 

 in a complete system of rotation overlooked. So much for 

 underlying facts. What then of the crop? I regret that no 

 reliable statistics are available as to the value of this crop to the 

 State, so large a per cent being*in the stalks, and so many 

 farmers utilizing the whole by means of the silo. If adequate 

 figures could be given they would but suggest the possibilities 

 when fully appreciated. One fact is well established, — that 

 neither by the common methods of selection of seed or growing 

 the crop can its greatest value be insured. One lesson bears 

 heavily upon every producer today, no matter where his field of 

 labor, that there can be no profit in half a crop. It is the maxi- 

 mum of output per acre or machine which pays, provided the 

 minimum cost of expenditure has faithfully been sought. No 

 man can fix the limit of production with acre or animal and 

 until that is finally determined the whole problem forces itself 

 upon the critical attention of him who seeks for profit. In 

 every industry the possible per cent is reduced by failure to 

 intelligently apply well known business principles. 



Whether intended for the silo or not there must be the cer- 

 tainty of full maturity for the crop to command full attention. 

 Beyond that, the question of yield forces itself year by year, 

 more and more, upon the student. We want a corn of great 

 vitality, giving a strong, stout, vigorous stalk of reasonable 

 height, maturing in one hundred days, one if not two ears to a 

 stalk, twelve to fourteen inches in length, well filled to the tip. 

 What does this mean? If an acre of corn is planted in drills 

 three and one-half feet apart and the seed dropped nine inches 

 apart in the drill there will be 16,594 stalks, assuming that every 

 kernel germinates. Allowing one ear to a stalk and six ounces 

 of shelled corn per ear. the average with nine inch ears, and the 

 yield would be one hundred and four bushels of shelled corn 

 per acre, allowing 60 pounds to the bushel. If the ears be 

 increased to ten inches, the yield would be one hundred and fif- 

 teen and two-thirds bushels, and if allowed to drop to eight 

 inches, we must be content with ninety and one-third. This 

 production is beyond present attainment and may be in the 

 future, but this we know, that the average of the State today is 

 altogether too low. The whole problem revolves around the 

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