DAIRY MEETING. IO9 



measure, and three inches deep. We stretch some wire or 

 string across two inches apart each way. That makes Httle 

 blocks or squares two inches on a side across the top. We 

 fill the box with sawdust or soil, and we take the kernels out of 

 these individual ears that we want to test for their vitality and 

 prepotency, and we place five 'in each of these little squares. 

 A box of that kind would test ']2 ears, and you would find a 

 large number of those ears that you would want to discard after 

 that test. This is a simple germination test, and while it is 

 useful it is not sufficient. The value depends on what the seed 

 will do under field conditions, and the strain you desire to 

 improve should be planted in either one of two systems, in a 

 small plot, to determine the quality of the strain which you have 

 selected to start with. One of these systems is a plot test 

 and the other is a row test. Take one of the ears you found 

 best from the germination test and plant a plot ten hills square 

 and you might have twenty or more ears under test in that way. 



The other method is to take one ear and plant a single row 

 from this one ear. Now give these plots good cultivation and 

 fertilization, take off all the weak stalks, all the suckers, and 

 at the end of the season go into this plot and select right there 

 as the plant stands, for the height of the ear, for the strength 

 of the stalk, for the position of the ear on the stalk and early 

 maturity. You can take into consideration all the character- 

 istics of the plarft that you cannot consider when you are select- 

 ing from the corn crib. Of course this plot should be treated 

 in relation to detasseling, etc., in the way I have mentioned 

 before. 



After the seed corn is fully matured in the field, the method 

 of storing is important. There is a certain ear of corn here 

 that would otherwise be a most excellent one but it has been 

 poorly stored and was picked when it was too immature. That 

 destroys the vitality and the planting value. The proper method 

 of storing, of course, is to put it in a cool, dry place. When 

 corn is harvested it contains 25 or 30 per cent of water. If 

 that corn freezes before most of the water is out of it, its value 

 as a producer will be badly lessened if not totally destroyed. 



I was asked to take up especially at this time a few facts con- 

 cerning what constitutes a good ear of corn. There has been 



