DAIRY, SEED IMPROVEMENT^ STOCK BREEDERS' MEETINGS. 2gi 



like to husk my corn, hanig it in a cool, dty place, and then 

 select my ears, hioping sometiiine to fix a type of corn that will 

 in some degree suit me. I have not reached it yet. I get some 

 good corn. I have n'ot ,corn that I want to show yet, it is not as 

 uniform as I would like to have it, jior the kernels as large. I 

 believe we can materially increase the yield to the acre. If we 

 get only 1,500 stalks, someithing is wrong with our seed. Sotne- 

 thing is necessary if we are going to minimize the waste. 



Suppose you gdt a stand oif about 12,000; 10 to 25 per cent 

 of those are barren. Why is it? There are five or six reasons. 

 First, the season; second, heredity; third, poor preparation of 

 the land; fourth, want of proper plant food at the right time; 

 fifth, lack of cultivation. Every one except the first depends 

 ■considerably upon the care to the same extent ; the poor sea- 

 son can be corrected by better attention tO' the land. The rem- 

 edy is in our hands. I wonder if we are giving our attention to 

 the matter c^i heredity. I was impressed by taking samples of 

 corn from number's of mine, raised by men who had used the 

 utmost care through a series of years, to find such variation in 

 growth and yield. One of the factors wihich we ought to count 

 is to find the enivironiment which is adapted to seed corn. Some 

 varieties will t^hrive in some sections and fail in others. We 

 oug'ht to work out this problem. If you have a variety that is 

 doing well for us, try to improve it, giving it the care and at- 

 tention and fertilization necessary. I use, at the last cultiva- 

 tion, a little fertilizer that carries three and one-half per cent 

 'of nitrogen. 



The color of the stalk, the amount of leaves, the development 

 of the ear, the length of the ear, we touch there what is abso- 

 lutely necessary and is vital to us if we are going to grow corn. 

 I am not particular about the type here, because I think it tends 

 to shorten the ear, and I want to reach out and increase the 

 length of the ear. It ,is well to take any point to start with; 

 we should seek to encourage the length of the ears, their grow- 

 ing closely, the early maturity of the corn and to increase the 

 number pi the kernels on the ear. These are problems that I 

 intend to keep at unitil I find out something that suits me. I 

 was pleased in passing over a number of samples of Dr. 

 Woods, to see that the protein content of the corn run from 

 10.65 to ,12.65. These were grown by farmers who knew noth- 



