DAIRY MEETING. 10/ 



After the individual strain has been selected, the first step is 

 ro get good seed. Other things are also important, but like 

 produces like, and if you start with strong seed the chances are 

 that you will have a stronger product in a year or two of breed- 

 ing. Com is one of the easiest things to improve. You can 

 improve the yield, you can decrease the number of days it takes 

 it to mature, you can increase the protein, you can increase the 

 size of the ears, you can change their position, you can increase 

 the amount of foliage, you can do almost anything you want 

 to, provided you select for one thing at a time and have a defi- 

 nite ideal in your mind when you begin the selection. In this 

 matter of seed, the first thing to consider is the vitality. The 

 method of selecting corn from a crib, or potatoes from a bin, 

 has gone by so far as successful breeding is concerned. I heard 

 the other day of a man who went into his potato field ajid 

 selected average hills, and he found that on an average about 

 7 hills out of TOO were producing six marketable potatoes. He 

 selected the strong hills and the next year he found that 17 out 

 of 100 produced six marketable tubers, the third year about 

 40 out of TOO, antl the fourth and fifth years he got it up to 65 

 or 70 hills. This will simply show the possibility in selection. 



Now there is a great deal of individuality in ears of corn, 

 just as much as there is in animals. If you will notice the 

 exhibit of corn which has been brought in here, or sent here 

 by the boys, you will find that while all the seed may have come 

 out of the same sack, the ears are not of the same shape, the 

 traces that come from the different farms are entirely unlike, 

 the size of the kernels is different, and the exhibits are different 

 in almost every way. So that the s5il, the fertilization, the time 

 of planting, and other similar things have a great deal to do 

 with it. In the matter of selecting for vitality, we should go 

 deeper than that. 



