28o AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



in Nebraska, ordering 15,000 bushels of barley. This barley- 

 was sold at a price about 100 per cent larger than that of the 

 local market. You will readily see the financial benefits the 

 members are receiving. This was not an unusual occurrence, 

 as the same thing holds in the case of corn and other grains. 



The importance of the work in Wisconsin is impressed upon 

 one very forcibly when through a study of the work one dis- 

 covers the real value this association is proving to the boys of 

 the State. The majority of the membership is made up of 

 young men and includes boys as young as 12 or 14 years of age. 

 Many of these boys have entered into some kind of a business 

 proposition with their fathers for raising seed corn or seed 

 grains. One in particular with w^hom I talked while there, 

 had cleared $900 in the year of 1909 from sweet corn selected 

 from a field raised by his father. The Wisconsin Experiment 

 Association furnished the seed and the boy made the selection. 

 The seed was then sold through the association. 



DETAILS OF FIELD WORK. 



The importance of keeping the remainder of the seed ears 

 after using what was required for seed, w-as not made plain 

 enough last spring, and as a result only two members have these 

 left. This corn is on exhibition in the association exhibit now, 

 and with it, a representative exhibit from each of the ten rows. 

 It is very interesting to note the difference in the way individual 

 ears have reproduced themselves, both in ear conformation and 

 yield per acre. The pedigree which we wull have of this corn 

 in a few years from now will be much more comprehensive and 

 instructive if we have the seed ears of each year's planting. 

 In planting their plots by hand, some of the members made the 

 mistake of planting too deep. As a result, some plots planted 

 at the same time as the field crops did not appear above ground 

 until long after the field corn. This proved in many cases to 

 be a serious handicap and it was thought by some members to 

 be due to the quality of the corn instead of the fact that it was 

 planted too deep. 



The importance of keeping the experimental plot at a suffi- 

 cient distance from other corn, to prevent it from mixing, has 

 not been understood during the first year's work as it will be 

 in 1911. The corn used for breeding work during the past 



