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The Bulletin. 



Volume 27. North Carolina State Board of Agriculture. Number 8. 



Entered at the Raleigh Post-office as second-class mail matter. 



The Bulletin is published monthly by the State Board of Agriculture. 



RALEIGH, AUGUST, 1906. 



SELECTIXG SEED-COKX FOR LAEGER YIELDS. 



BY C. B. WILLIAMS. 



There is no field of work that is more inviting to the investio-ator 

 or the results from which will prove of more interest and benefit to the 

 general farmer than information concerning the proper methods of 

 selecting seed of the different agricultural crops. By good seed alone, 

 with present fertilization and cultivation, it is possible to greatly 

 increase the yields of all crops grown in the State at little cost rela- 

 tively. In consideration of the promise in this neglected field of work 

 in North Carolina and that over forty-seven per cent of all land culti- 

 vated in the State is devoted to corn, with the use of something like 

 450,000 bushels of seed corn and a small average annual yield of 

 less than thirteen bushels of shelled corn per acre, the State Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture began experiments in selecting seed corn six or 

 seven years ago, looking towards ascertaining practical information 

 that would lead to materially increased yields of this cereal, should 

 the facts thus worked out be taken and applied by the farmers of the 

 State in their farming operations. 



It should be borne in mind, in the beginning, that the underlying 

 principles of plant and animal improvement are almost identical, 

 and that similar methods to those which have been adopted in the 

 improvement of the various breeds of live-stock must be followed by 

 all those who wish to grow plants of increasing productiveness. It 

 must also be remembered that as intelligent feeding and good care 

 stand to animal breeding, so do proper fertilization and thorough 

 cultivation of the soil stand to plant breeding or improvement; for 

 if proper food and care are not furnished both plants and animals, 

 improved breeding will not only be impossible, but retrogression 

 inevitable. With the same thought and care, results are secured 



