598 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



to see that the grains we plant are sufficiently full of vitality to 

 bear, we can very materially increase our production by simply 

 paying attention to the vitality of our seed corn. According to 

 the standard of Pennsylvania production, this question of vitality 

 is not to be neglected. 



Another important point is productivity. There is just as much 

 difference between the productivity of the different corn plants as 

 there is between cows. Every grain of corn is capable of a degree 

 of productivity, just the same as an animal is. That is a quality for 

 which you have been breeding livestock; particularly in the last 

 fifty years great stress has been laid to corn until the last few 

 years. There are certain things in regard to this on which I will 

 not enter now; suffice it to say that oats, clover, wheat, timothy, 

 corn and other crops are just as capable of improvement by the 

 same' general methods as horses or cattle or sheep are, so that we 

 have to pay attention to the productivity of corn. You are all 

 aware that there are certain grade cows which will produce as 

 much milk and butter-fat during the course of the year as a good 

 many highly bred registered cows; you are also aware of one fact 

 that the progeny of these grade cows are not so likely to produce 

 as much as will the progeny of the registered cattle, wherefore the 

 grade cows are not as valuable as the registered cattle. It may not 

 be possible to produce the pedigree of an ear of corn or of a grain 

 of wheat, but we can introduce principles of breeding into our crops 

 in that respect just the same as we can into our animals. It is 

 with this view that we want to look to the productivity of our 

 ears of corn. We don't want stalks that are sterile. 



Now, I want to say something about the introduction, of seed 

 corn from some other locality. We hear a good many farmers say 

 that seed corn runs out, and it is necessary to go into some other 

 locality to get the seed. So it will be, if you allow them to run out. 

 If you will buy an Oxfforddown from our friend, Mr. Stone, and leave 

 him out in the wind and the weather, and pay no attention to him, 

 at the end of the year you will not have the same quality of sheep 

 that he was. The same thing applies to corn. If you get good 

 corn, and put it into poor soil, and give it poor cultivation, it is 

 pi*obable, of course, that it will run out. The same care that you 

 men exercise in breeding cattle, and taking care of the individual, 

 is required in the raising of corn. 



Then I come to the last, percentage of keeping up the standard, 

 must be exercised in keeping your farm crops up to the standard 

 required. We must have ideas in our minds, and keep them con- 

 stantly before us. When a man is dilligent in caring for his crops, 

 putting them in suitable soil — Prof. Hunt has just shown us how 

 it is possible to grow alfalfa under suitable soil conditions, and 

 the same thing applies to other crops. If we put our crops in the 

 best soil possible, give them the best culture possible, and have 

 an ideal of what we want and keep it before us, there is no reason 

 to believe our crops will run out. So when we import seeds from 

 other localities, it is necessary to get that which is best suited for 

 our purpose and environment. When we send to Iowa, Ohio or 

 Maryland for corn, when we get Reid's Yellow Dent and Leaming 

 OT Boone Gounty White, it is not so much these varieties that we 



