264 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



example, where two strains were crossed, each yielding in the 

 neighborhood of 65 bushels, the resulting yield the first cross- 

 bred generation was over 100 bushels to the acre. People who 

 have done this work give much higher figures even than these. 



Q. Suppose you take that cross-bred seed and breed it again, 

 what would you get? 



A. That is not to be done. Anybody w^ho takes up this plan 

 must be prepared to run on his farm all the time at least three 

 corn plats so far apart that they will not mix. Understand I 

 am not advising this plan as a practical thing, but bring it out as 

 having a bearing on the question raised in regard to detasseling. 



Q. I would like to know about husking corn. In my expe- 

 rience with the corn I have raised the husking costs as much as 

 the rest of the crop? 



A. You will realize that my estimates are minimum ones. I 

 deliberately put the price very low on husking. I agree with 

 you that husking probably often costs more, and would like to 

 have your opinion. In that estimate the charge for husking is 

 $3. What do you think it costs you ? 



Q. Well it costs me pretty close to $9. My corn crop cost 

 me about 47 cents per bushel. 



Prof. Hitchings : Don't you think that it makes quite 

 a diflference in the value of the land used ? If one farm is worth 

 $20 an acre, and another man is using land worth $100 per acre, 

 there is quite an item to be considered. 



Dr. Pearl: Yes, of course, that figures on the land rental 

 charge, but I endeavored to make a fair average charge, con- 

 sidering the land in Maine that is used for corn growing. 



Q. How long can we continue to get an improvement in the 

 yield of our corn? 



A. That is a hard question to answer. It seems to me that 

 the question of the improvement of corn by breeding, in the last 

 analysis, comes to the same basis as the improvement of any- 

 thing else by breeding. We have to discover the ear, in the 

 case of corn, which comes from a plant which has the ability to 

 transmit its qualities. We must have the transmission of good 

 qualities. With ear-to-row tests you get in the first generation 

 such results as those shown down stairs; some rows that yield 

 80 bushels to the acre, and some that yield at the rate of five 

 bushels. The common assumption is that by planting seed from 

 the 80-bushel row next year you will surely get a considerably 



