The Bulletin. 11 



In making selections in the field, at least four times as mueh corn 

 should be gathered as it is desired for seed purposes the following 

 year, so that further and more careful selection can be made, after 

 the ears have been taken to the barn, and when a leisure time pre- 

 sents itself. In the final selection, the ears should be arranged con- 

 veniently on the barn fioor or ground, and with an ear of the type 

 desired in mind, or in hand, go over the lot and remove all unde- 

 sirable ears. The seed thus selected should be transferred to a box or 

 barrel and covered with wire gauze or something else that will permit 

 of thorough ventilation and keep out rats and mice. Store the barrel 

 or box in some dry place and let remain until the seed are wanted 



for planting. 



^ Barn Selection. 



It is a common and almost universal practice in Xorth Carolina 

 to make seed corn selection, where it is made at all, from the crib in 

 the spring just before planting time, when the quantity is small and 

 the quality inferior. This method yields better results than no selec- 

 tion at all, but is far inferior to field selection, where the performance 

 record of each stalk is given consideration. 



In barn selection, it is usually the larger ears that are chosen for 

 seed purposes, and these are not, as pointed out above, the best ones for 

 seed. We have in this State, by our barn method of seed-corn selec- 

 tion, been unconsciously selecting, growing and perpetuating one-eared 



types of corn. 



Result of Proper Seed Selection. 



By careful seed selection, the yield for E"orth Carolina could easily 

 be increased two bushels of shelled corn per acre, which would be 

 worth about three and one-fourth million dollars per year clear to the 

 farmers of the State when corn is selling for sixty cents per bushel. 

 By adding one grain per ear to the present yield through use of better 

 methods of seed selection, over $70,000 increase annually w^ould re- 

 sult in net receipts for the corn crop of the State. These are exceed- 

 ingly low estimates of what might be done by proper seed selection, 

 for the Department and workers in other States have found that from 

 five to fifteen bushels of shelled corn more are yielded per acre from 

 well-selected seed than from those selected in the usual way. 



In experiments with this cereal conducted on the Eastern Test 

 Farm during the past six years, it has been found that varieties of 

 corn that were planted side by side in the same w^ay on the same type 

 of land and fertilized and cultivated identicaUy, as far as was possi- 

 ble to do, have varied from 6.2 bushels in 1900 to 13.6 bushels in 

 1905. 



