The Bulletin. 13 



Field iScleclioii and Growth of Seed in an Isolaled Field. 



By carefully selecting a limited number of the very best obtainable 

 seed ears from the field in the fall and plantiiii^' them in a field sepa- 

 rated from any other corn, something like 500 or (JOO yards, to prevent 

 crossing by the pollen being carried by the wind, much better and 

 quicker results are secured than where simple field selection alone is 

 practiced, i. c, if the breeding plat or field is properly cared for. This 

 field should be tolerably fertile (equal at least to the lands on which 

 the general crop is to be grown), for jioverty of soil is very condu- 

 cive to reversion, thereby losing in one year's growth on a poor soil 

 what has been gained by a number of years of rigid selection. The 

 rows in the breeding plat should be of such length that they will re- 

 quire only about three-quarters of an ear per row, and in planting, 

 each row should receive its individual ear, so that the performance 

 record of each seed ear can be seen, and if not satisfactory the whole 

 row can be rejected for seed purposes. After planting as many 

 rows as is desired from the selected ears, a composite sample should 

 then be made of the quantity of each ear left over, and a border 

 of several rows planted entirely around the breeding plat to still 

 further prevent the possibility of wind pollenation from outside corn- 

 fields. The land on which this plat is to be located should be given 

 deep and thorough preparation. The subsequent cultivations of the 

 corn should be every ten to twelve days, with a cultivator with 

 small hoes on, rather deep early in the season, but becoming shal- 

 lower and with the larger hoes on as the season advances and the root 

 system extends towards the middle of the row and nearer the sur- 

 face. Especially is this important on upland soil, where conserva- 

 tion of all moisture plays such an important part in yield. When 

 the £orn in the breeding plat has attained to the tasseling stage, the 

 tassels from all barren stalks should be carefully removed just as 

 they are emerging from the roll of the last leaf. The tassel is the 

 male part of the corn plant, while the silk is the female part. When 

 a stalk is barren or bears only male organs, the tassel is frequently 

 above the average in size, strength, and vigor, as all the vital forces 

 of such a plant have been expended on this single organ of reproduc- 

 tion ; hence, when an ovule or embryonic kernel, through the silk, is 

 fertilized or pollenated by the yellow dust-like pollen from a barren 

 stalk, it will, when planted, have a strong tendency, inherited through 

 its male parent, to produce a barren stalk. The tassels should also 

 be removed from all weak and stunted plants; for the same reason 

 we would not use a "scrubby" stunted bull in a herd of cows if we 

 cared anything for the future improvement of the stock. It has 

 been demonstrated time and again by carefully conducted experi- 

 ments that by selection from poor plants the yield of corn will not 

 only be materially reduced, but will be of inferior quality. The 

 writer has, during the past four or five summers, visited quite a num- 



