328 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



corn breeder to put these ears to the test that he may be able to 

 select seed from the most productive. In order that the test of the 

 producing power of select ears may prove true and valuable, it is 

 necessary that the ears be equally well preserved, for on the care 

 and preservation of seed corn depends largely its power to produce. 

 If some ears have been better cared for than others, the test, when 

 completed will not decide the inherited tendencies of the ears toward 

 great production. 



In many sections of the East, where the fields are much broken 

 with ravines and clay banks, it is next to impossible to make a val- 

 uable comparative test of the producing power of individual ears. 

 In Missouri and other States of the Mississippi Valley, where larga 

 tracts of quite uniform soil exist, the task is much easier, but even 

 here very close attention must be given or the results will not be 

 valuable. Not only the uniformity of fertility, but the topography 

 of the land must be considered. If j ome rows are on miuch lower 

 land than others, the comparison of the producing power of the ears 

 will be destroyed. If it becomes necessary to plant on a piece of 

 ground, one side of which is more elevated or more fertile than the 

 other, it is necessary to run the rows in such a direction that each 

 row will occupy equal portions of the low or fertile land. I wish to 

 place great stress upon this point, namely, that the rows be given 

 equal chances in all respects, because otherwise the records of pro- 

 duction do not indicate the inherited tendencies of the ears to pro- 

 duce, but rather indicate the fertility of the situation the particular 

 ears occupied in the plat. As there is always a possibility that some 

 of the rows may occupy positions more favorable to growth than 

 other rows, a duplicate planting is recommended. In this way seed 

 from each ear is planted in two different rows located in different 

 parts of the field, making it very much more likely that the seed 

 from each ear has, as an average, equal chances. 



The method of plowing might be overlooked and considered to 

 have no influence upon the yield of the individual ears, but I have 

 experienced the harvesting of breeding plats in which the central 

 rows of the plat produced very much more than the adjoining rows 

 and which could be attributed solely to the fact that the central 

 rows were located upon what are termed back furrows or the line 

 where the two furrows were thrown together in starting the land. 

 In weighing the yields from such rows, it at first appears as though 

 these central rows are very desirable ones from which to save seed, 

 but when it is known that their greater production is due to location 

 rather than to the ability of the seed ears to produce, we can under- 



