486 ANNUAL REPOR'D OF THE Off. Doc. 



which contains but 6.7 per cent, of protein and as high as 14.4 per 

 cent, of protein. 



No results of influence upon yield have been reported. The most 

 ijnportant etlectof this work will be to call attention to the proper 

 method of breeding corn, namely, to select the type of ear desired and 

 then to test its ability to transmit its quality. 



Corn may be bred for outward characteristics, for quality and for 

 yield. The finest looking ear may not be the best yielding ear. 

 Breeding for quality may be desirable under some circumstances, 

 but is subject to the objection that if both quality and yield are 

 sought for, you are breeding for two characters in place of one. 

 The question may be properly raised whether any ear of corn that 

 is well matured is not good enough in quality. 



An objection to raising corn for high protein is that unless you 

 decrease the yield, you increase the amount of nitrogen removed 

 from the soil. It is a question whether it may not be better to raise 

 the nitrogen needed in leguminous crops like clover and alfalfa, 

 soy beans and cowpeas, and raise corn primarily as a source of easily 

 digestible carbohydrates. A farmer is knowm who has deliberately 

 announced his intention to breed corn for low protein content and 

 get his nitrogen from those crops which are supposed to gather their 

 nitrogen from the air. 



Whatever the purpose for which corn is to be bred, a definite plan 

 of procedure should be followed. The breeding plat method is the 

 one now commonly adapted. 



(1) First carefully consider the variety of corn best suited to your 

 purpose. Having selected the variety, grow no other. 



(2) Select 100 ears of perfect vitality of this variety. Weigh 

 each ear separately and arrange in order of weight. 



(3) From these 100 ears, select forty ear^ nearest your ideal, giv- 

 ing due importance to weight of ear, but not neglecting other quali- 

 ties. If you have not had much experience in selecting corn, a 

 score card will be found helpful in making selections. 



(4) Next, shell each ear separately, w^eigh cobs, and determine 

 total weight and per cent, of shelled corn. With this information, 

 select twenty-five out of the forty ears and number ears 1 to 25. 



(5) Lay off a piece of uniform laud fifty hills square and plant 

 rows 1 and 26 to ear 1, rows 2 and 27 to ear 2, until ear 25 is planted 

 on rows 25 and 50. Place five kernels in each hill and when plants 

 are three to four inches high, thin so that each row has 150 plants. 

 If this plat of corn is planted by itself, four rows of corn should be 

 planted clear around the plat from what is left of the twenty-five 

 selected ears. Generally speaking, tlie most practical way will be 

 to plant the plat in the body of a field containing the ordinary crop 

 which will be of the same variety'. The breeding plats should not be 

 within twenty rods of neighbors' corn fields, especially if the variety 

 is different. 



(6) When the corn is properly matured, husk and weigh the ears 

 from each row separately under exactly uniform conditions. If the 

 progeny of a certain ear yiolds more and better corn from both rows 

 than does either row from another ear, then you are justified in 

 assuming that the former has superior hereditary force and that the 

 improvement was not the result of environment. 



(7) For the next year's breeding plat, select twenty-five ears from 



