540 ANNUAL RErOIlT OF TUB Off. Doc. 



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I am trying to get a stalk of corn that will produce one large ear. 

 Now, what do I iiunm by a large ear? I mean an ear that will 

 shell about tilteen ounces of corn to the cob. About eighty-six per 

 cent, of corn to the cob that is the kind of ear I want. I have not 

 done any work along this line of raising two ears on the stalk but 

 Avant an ear of the size I have already indicated. That is the kind 

 that suits me. 



Now, after you have worked for these results awhile, I have work- 

 ed on this line, and you have eliminated the rows that produced 

 nubbins and barren stalks and stalks with ears away up here and 

 others away down here, and with weak foliage and all that kind 

 of things, and you have selected those that are doing the very best, 

 aud that is the kind I want — let me say right here that the nubbins 

 will disappear. I mean that little fellow about this long (showing). 



Mr. W. H. Beam, living on the same kind of soil I am talking 

 about, the Messasoit soil, this last Summer in a dry season, had a 

 crop of corn produced in the way I am trying to tell you and the 

 shortest nubbin was that long (indicating). That is a pretty fair 

 ear in some climates. The longest ears were twelve inches long, 

 and that is the kind of ear I want, if I can possibly get it. 



KIND OF EAR 



The next thing that I am going to talk about is the kind of ear. 

 What kind of oar do you want? We had some here to-day that 

 suited me first-class. I want an ear twelve inches long as near 

 as I can get it, but if I can't get a twelve-inch ear that has grains 

 as long as a ten or eleven-inch ear has then I will take the ten or 

 eleven-inch ear; I want the grains on the long ear just as long as 

 on the shorter ear. Now, why? Because I always get more corn. 

 Never sacrifice length of grain foi: length of ear. When you have 

 to get an ear that has grain only one-fourth inch long, always take 

 the short ear that a grain five-eighth of an inch long every time; 

 that is my experience. And then what else? Then if I can get 

 it — I know I am not talking scientificallv when I sav this — if vou 

 can get it have the rows straight and the grains equal size, and 

 the butts filled out and the grains running over the top filled out. 

 I want to get just as much corn as when the rows are crooked, and 

 I take the ear that has straight rows provided it gives the quantity 

 of corn, but if it don't do that, don't take it. I never do. It is 

 quantity I am after. Take the crooked rowed ear provided it has 

 a good body and more corn than the straight rowed one. While 

 I say this is not scientific doctrine, and that is not corn breeders' 

 doctrine, but that is what I do, and I am telling you what I do. 

 That is what I know about it. 



KIND OF SEED 



Another thing I want to talk a little bit about is what kind of 

 a grain do you want. You want a grain five-eighth of an inch long, 

 and about one-eighth of an inch thick, sometimes not quite that 

 much, and it ought to be a quarter-of-an-inch and a little more across. 

 And then it should not be pointed like a shoe peg. Never plant 

 shoe peg grains of corn. Now, why? Because they are low in vi- 

 tality. They have not a good germ. That is the trouble, and there 

 is where the trouble is, and you want as strong a germ as you can 

 possibly get, and you do not get it in a shoe peg grain. 



