DAIRY, SEED IMPROVEMENT, STOCK BREEDERS' MEETINGS. 283 



CORN BREEDING. 



Prof. Franklin Menges, York, Pa. 



(Stenographic Report.) 



I am delighted to be here in Maine for the first time. I 

 have known about Maine people for a good long while, espe- 

 cially about my friend, Mr. Rogers, and if you are all as good 

 fellows as Ihe, I shall like you. 



I have heard about you in other ways. We import large 

 quantities of seed potatoes from Maine. I do not know that we 

 have ever imported any from Michigan, Colorado or California, 

 or from any other states exceipt Maine and New York. I want 

 to say to you, my friends, that, if you are doing as well along 

 other lines as you are along the line of developing the potatoes, 

 you are doing mighty well. 



I am to talk to ycu about a crop of which I believe we can 

 raise larger quantities than you — I may be mistaken but I be- 

 lieve it. We are satisfied that in our section we can produce 

 a larger yield of corn to tlhe acre t'han can be produced in any 

 other section of the United States. I am covering considerable 

 territory when I say that. If a farmer is anything, he is a 

 good producer. That is his business ; or he is growing plants, 

 a better definition of a farmer's business. I think he ought to 

 produce as large a quantity of human nutrition as is possible 

 in his soil and climatic conditions. It costs just as much to pro- 

 duce a small quantity as it does to produce a large quantity of 

 these products. 



You and I know, and I believe this is an association 

 composed very largely of dairymen, I may be mistaken 

 because I do not know any of you, that we have produced or 

 made a better cow by breeding. You know that the Holstein 

 cow is in all probability the oldest dairy cow we have. We 

 started some 2,000 years ago to develop the Holstein cow. 

 Today we have a cow that makes about 29,000 pounds of milk 

 and about 12,000 pounds of butter, and sihe is a Holstein. How 

 did we get her ? We got that cow by breeding. 



