46 CROSSBREEDING CORN. 



CULTURE. 



The land was plowed deep. No commercial fertilizer was applied 

 direct to the corn where Marlboro Prolific was used as sire, the land 

 having previously been fertilized for rape. A complete fertilizer at 

 the rate of about 800 pounds per acre was applied to the land where 

 the Rodgers sire was used. The land was listed with a turning plow, 

 and the corn was planted in the bottom of the furrows. Eight 

 square feet were allowed each plant, the rows being 4 feet apart each 

 way. The cultivation was with sweeps and harrows, and tlie last 

 cultivation left the land level. 



HARVEST. 



The corn was harvested when thoroughly dry in the field. The 

 weights were taken separately of all ears grown on the standard or 

 sire stalks and of all the ears grown on the detasseled stalks of a row, 

 and the two weights were recorded separately. Only normal hills 

 with normal surroundings were considered, and the number of these 

 hills considered was recorded under the heading "Number of perfect 

 hills." 



WORK OF 1910. 



Only a portion of the seed from the original ears of this experiment 

 was planted in 1909. The remnant seed of each ear was preserved 

 in a separate glass bottle at Washington, D. C, until the spring of 

 1910, when it was tested for germination and planted in comparison 

 with crossed progeny that had been growing at Statesboro in 1909, 

 as previously described. 



VITALITY OP SEED TESTED BEFORE PLANTING. 



Vitahty tests were made by the Seed Laboratory of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture of all the ears planted in the experi- 

 ment. Each ear was represented in the germination test by 10 ker- 

 nels from various parts of the ear. The results were recorded as so 

 many kernels germinating strong and so many germinating weak. 

 The pure or 2-year-old seed averaged about 90 per cent strong the 

 spring of 1910, and was unusually uniform in this particular, but the 

 vitahty of the crossed seed was usually low, and in some cases it was 

 impossible to obtain satisfactory seed, even though the best was 

 chosen. The crossed progeny was represented by a single ear selected 

 largely because its vitalitj'" was the best available. 



Table XV shows the variability in the germinating power both 

 within the variety and between the varieties. 



218 



