12 Thk Bulletin. 



By thus selecting your seed in the crib you accelerate the tendency of 

 your corn to grow one ear to the stalk, and thus reduce the yield per 

 acre. 



1^0 corn grower should think of making crib selections of seed for 

 planting. In the fall, when the husks are turning brown on the ears, 

 the farmer should search his fields for such plants as he would be glad 

 to grow the following season. He will not find a great many such plants, 

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

 seed. The plants 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 culti- 

 vate 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 till they have dried out thoroughly. 

 N'ow 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 selections 

 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 



