DEPAETMENT REPOETS. 135 



corn. The corn was ripe about the ]6th of September. For crossing, we 

 selected early stalks which promised several ears. In most of these cases the 

 upper ear was rather low down on the stalk. The top of the stalk was quite 

 slender, the slianks of the ears rather long, tips of husks long. This selec- 

 tion for crossing did not prove a good one. My best ears were among the 

 latest to mature. They had short shanks and short husks, and grew quite well 

 up on the stalk. Although pollen was carried several times to fertilize a 

 young ear, these ears seldom filled out completely. I consider kernels from 

 such ears just as good for seed as though the ear had been well filled out. The 

 absence of some kernels not fertilized allowed the rest to develop more per- 

 fectly. It would be like saving for planting the seeds from a few large apples 

 where many apple blossoms in the vicinity on the tree had been removed to 

 allow a few to develop more perfectly. Considering the season and the soil 

 the corn was good. There was a tendency to a shortening of the kernels and 

 early maturity. 



After carefully husking and studying the corn, I decided to save an ear for 

 seed in 1883 which had not been artificially crossed. I had been unable, while 

 the corn was about to flower, to tell which were the best stalks. 



This best ear of the crop of 1881 was the upper ear with a large rudimen- 

 tary ear occupying the node below. This ear was four feet from the ground 

 and came from the axil of the eighth leaf. The ear had a white cob, was 

 nearly cylindrical, and had twenty rows of long kernels. 



In 1882 a part of this ear was planted by itself on sandy land well fertilized 

 by barn-yard manure plowed in, and later top-dressed with hen manure. 



Attempts were again made in selecting, protecting, and inter-crossing similar 

 stalks. The tips of all stalks not thought to be promising were pulled out 

 before flowering. The plat of corn is much more uniform in quality and 

 appearance than was on any previous plat on former years. The season in 

 this part of central Michigan has been unprecedented for cool weather. Corn 

 in all of this part of the State is very backward and much of it very small. 



Since Avriting the above the corn has been husked, and was found better and 

 much more uniform than on any former year. The best ear for seed next 

 year, all things considered, was the upper ear where two ears grew on one 

 stalk. It must be confessed that this ear grew on a stalk which we had not 

 thought promising enough to cross by hand when it was in flower. In other 

 words, I find it is not easy, when in flower, to tell just how a stalk will turn 

 out. 



Except in very rare cases, however, we were able to know enough to castrate 

 all stalks which produced no ears or mere nubbins, 



CROSSING CORN WITH FOREIGN" STOCK. 



Several of my previous reports or lectures at Farmers' Institutes has con- 

 tained a detailed explanation of the meaning of this mode of crossing. In 

 1878 I reported some experiments made with Indian corn and with beans. 

 The advantage shown by the crossing of corn over that not crossed was as 151 

 exceeds 100, and in the case of Black Wax beans it was as 236 exceeds 100. 

 In 1879 and 1880 a similar experiment was made with Indian corn, showing 

 that seed from crossed stock produced corn excelling that raised from 

 uncrossed seed as' 109 67-100 exceeds 100, or nearly ten per cent in favor of 

 crossed stock. 



