The Bulletin. 5 



plants, but he will find a few, and these he should select and carefully 

 tag for saed. The stalks must not be cut or have the fodder pulled 

 from them at all. Let the stalks dry up and the ears cure out thoroughly 

 before taking them in from the field. 



BREEDING PLAT. 



Select enough of these ideal plants for the crop next season and 

 reserve a number of the best of these carefully selected ears for the 

 breeding plat. 



The breeding plat should be on land similar in all respects to the 

 land on which the general crop is to be planted. In this plat plant 

 some fifty or one hundred rows of fifty to one hundred hills each from 

 the best ears selected in the field from the general crop, and fertilize 

 and cultivate just as you would the rest of the corn crop. 



It is a well established fact that seed corn that has been crossed 

 makes a better yield and a better quality of corn than seed that has been 

 inbred. You must, therefore, select from this breeding plat only such 

 ears as have been rigidly crossed. 



In order to insure rigid crossing in the seed patch you have only 

 to resort to the simple operation of detasseling every other row or every 

 other hill, leaving tassels in the two outside rows. 



Do not pull the fodder from the breeding plat, but let the stalks 

 dry up and the ears remain in the field until they have dried out thor- 

 oughly. Now go into the breeding plat and select your seed corn for 

 the next crop. Take only the best ears from the best stalks. It would 

 be well, however, to make a careful examination of the plat before the 

 stalks dry up, in order to note any tendency to disease among the 

 stalks. Those stalks showing susceptibility to any of the common 

 diseases of corn should either be cut out at once or so marked that ears 

 will not be taken from them for seed at gathering time. Be sure that 

 every ear selected for seed the following year is taken from a detasseled 

 stalk. Not a single ear, no matter how beautiful it may be, should be 

 taken from a stalk in which the tassel* has been allowed to grow. 



Enough corn should be selected from this breeding plat to plant the 

 general crop, but the very best ears in the plat should be kept for the 

 breeding plat the following year. Always plant the very best selection 

 in the breeding plat and save the rest for the general crop. You will 

 thus gradually increase the general strength and vigor of your whole 

 crop by concentrating your efforts on a small area from year to year 

 with a\iew to increasing the vitality and prolificacy of the strain. 



PRESERVATION OF SEED. 



Having thus carefully selected your seed corn, the next step is to 

 give it proper care and attention till planting time. The best and most 

 viable seed corn may have its germinating power greatly reduced by 

 improper handling and storing during the winter months. 



The first essential in the preservation of seed corn is a dry place. 

 After having been allowed to dry out thoroughly in the fall, the ears 

 should be crefully stored in a dry place where rats cannot get at them 

 and where the corn weevil is not likely to bother. Seed corn should by 

 no means be stored in an open crib or a damp cellar. 



On one occasion, "Four bushels of corn were harvested and divided 



