DAIRY MEETING. Ill 



shelled corn is produced with the wedge shape kernel. The 

 vitality of the seed is something that has to be taken into con- 

 sideration. There are certain ears of corn in the back of the 

 room that are excellent so far as all the other points I have 

 mentioned are concerned, but they are very immature, and their 

 vitality would be afifected. The amount of corn to the cob is 

 usually found by shelling every other ear in the exhibit. Weigh 

 the ears before they are shelled, then weigh the cobs after shell- 

 ing and subtract the weight of the cobs from the whole weight ; 

 then divide the weight of the shelled corn by the weight of corn 

 in the cob and you get the proportion of shelled corn to the cob. 



I have not said anything about silage corn. In this line we 

 need considerable work done. So far as I know, there is not 

 a first-class variety of silage corn being developed in the State 

 today. We have certain kinds of corn that produce plenty of 

 forage but have no ears and we get a poor quality of silage. 

 Other varieties produce plenty of ear corn but yield a very small 

 tonnage to the acre. There is a good field for some one in the 

 breeding of a variety of silage corn, because more and more the 

 Maine dairyman will depend in the future upon silage as a basis 

 of his dairy feeding. 



The sweet corn industry in this State is just in its infancy. 

 Maine produces the best sweet corn of any state. New York 

 and Michigan growers before the inauguration of the pure food 

 laws used to label their corn ''Maine Grown Corn." The bulk 

 of the sweet corn seed comes from farther south, and the great 

 trouble with the sweet corn industry today is the fact that about 

 once in three or four years we lose a crop. By three or four 

 years selection along the lines I have indicated it would be 

 perfectly possible to take several days, if not two weeks, oflF 

 from the period required to reach maturity of a sweet corn that 

 would be acceptable to the canners, and it seems to me there is 

 no better field open for the enterprising farmer of this State 

 today than to enter into an experiment or a breeding test for 

 the purpose of improving the sweet corn, because every bushel 

 that he produces could be readily sold at a high price. At the 

 recent corn show at Springfield, 111., the ten best ears of corn 

 sold for $2,700. It shows that there is value and money in 

 corn. I am personally interested in this matter, as I am work- 



