40 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 



from the seed which is the result of this pollination. If we 

 take an average corn field and count the number of tassels 

 and good ears in a hundred hills, we shall find somethinsr 

 under half barren; or, expressed more particularly, we shall 

 find one hundred pollen bearing stalks and but rarely over 

 fifty good ears of corn. The chances are, therefore, at least 

 even, that one prolific stalk has been fertilized from an un- 

 prolific plant, and very slight of being fertilized from a plant 

 as good as itself. In planting the kernels from this prolific 

 plant we cannot, therefore, hope to continue the same prolifi- 

 cacy in its progeny, for the seed partakes of the nature of 

 both its parents. Even more, each seed of the ear is not 

 fertilized from the same plant, but there are many difierent 

 qualities derived from as many difierent male parents, gath- 

 ered together on the one cob. 



We now see that the appearance of the ear of corn, its 

 length, the regularity of its rows, etc., is no sure index of 

 its quality for seed, but that in order to secure good seed we 

 must know somewhat of its history ; must know how prolific 

 it is, and what are its antecedents. In our agricultural fairs, 

 by giving premiums for seed corn from the external apj^ear- 

 ance alone, much injustice Jias resulted. As for the efiect, the 

 ambitious farmers have been enticed into selecting a few long 

 fine ears from large fields of corn, and have been led to sacri- 

 fice true utility to show. We have never known the seed 

 corn committee to report the proportion of grain and cob on 

 winning traces, nor which has produced the most gi*ain for a 

 given length of ear, nor to ask what was the yield of the field 

 from which the exhibit was made, nor from whence the seed 

 was procured, and for what peculiar properties the premium 

 was claimed. No ; the fourteen inch ear from a forty bushel 

 yield will take the honors from the eight inch ear taken from 

 a hundred bushel yield, and yet the wise farmer should pay 

 for the seed of the one field, and might wisely reject with 

 contumely the seed from the winning trace. 



The true principle or rule, at the foundation of successful 

 corn culture, is to select seed of a variety adapted to our 



