EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 303 



After the corn is well up, count the number of plants you have per 

 row, divide by the number of hills in the row and decide whether you 

 have a good average stand. If not, find out where the difficulty lies, 

 and plan to remove the difficulty in the future. Note the number of 

 hills (a) with no plants, (b) with one plant, (c) with two, and so on. 



CULTIVATING. 



Cultivate often enough to keep the soil free from weeds and thoroughly 

 stirred to a depth of 2 inches up to the time of tasseling. 



When the ears have well set, count and record the number of stalks 

 bearing no ears. If there are many of the latter, some way should be 

 sought to lessen the number in the future. The presence of such stalks 

 may be due to at least two causes, (1) inherited barrenness, (2) to im- 

 proper nutrition. 



CORN IMPROVEMENT. 



In the improvement of corn the following things are sought, and in the 

 order named : 



1. Increased yields. 



2. Improved qualities. 



3. Fixation of character, the power to transmit to succeeding 



generations certain well defined fixed characters and these 

 within reasonably narrow limits. 



INCREASED YIELDS. 



In improving for yields merely, it is sought to increase the power of 

 the plant to use larger amounts of food and produce more grain or fod- 

 der, or both. The plant must have more energy. To accomplish this 

 end two lines of procedure are open to us : 



1. Selection : 



(a) general. 



(b) controlled. 



2. Cross fertilizing: 



(a) general. 



(b) controlled. 



The real work of improvement in both cases will be done in plots, and 

 as described here, may be taken up by any farmer interested in corn 

 improvement. 



SELECTION. 



This work begins in the field of growing, ripening corn. The field is 

 explored for the most perfect ears in size, form and depth of kernel 

 found on the most perfect stalk as regards foliage, size, energy and time 

 of maturing ear. Generally, not many ears will be found coming up 

 to the ideal of the experimenter. These ears are carefully saved for 

 planting. 



(la) The grain from these ears may be mixed and planted in an area 



