The Bulletin. 17 



tiired, and possess kernols of projx'v shnpo, colov aiul vitality. It 

 must be kept in mind that if it is wished to produce a variety that will 

 bear more than one ear per stalk, selection should bo made in the field 

 each fall from stalks bearing two or more ears per stalk. What is 

 meant by a tM^o-eared variety of corn is, or should be, that when it is 

 gTO^vn under the same conditions as some other variety, such as 

 Holt's Strawberry, it will have more stalks bearing two ears than 

 Holt's Strawberry, a one-eared variety. Of course, other factors 

 besides seed selection play an important part in determining the 

 yield of any variety of . corn. They are fertility and physical 

 condition of the soil, season, cultivation, etc. Xotwithstanding these 

 facts, some seedsmen advertise that they have certain varieties of 

 corn that will bear two, three, four, five and even six and seven ears, 

 as the case may be, per stalk, implying, if riot stating positively, that 

 the exploited varieties with euphonious and "catchy" names will do 

 these wonderful and impossible things regardless of poverty of the 

 soil and unfavorable soil and seasonal conditions. It is often wise 

 to let your neighbor do the bujdng from the man that claims too 

 much, and do your own purchasing from one that claims less and 

 supplies seed that do more. 



Large versus Small Ears. 



Although, taking everything into consideration where corn is gath- 

 ered by hand in the ordinary way, it will usually be a little easier 

 and slightly cheaper to gather and handle the same acreage of large- 

 eared corn than of corn with smaller ears, when the yield of shelled 

 corn per acre for both are the same ; yet, quite frequently from a 

 financial standpoint, it will be better for the farmer to use seed of a 

 variety possessing a relatively small ear, because of the greatly in- 

 creased yield of grain per acre that w^ould result from the use of such 

 seed. Within reasonable limits, it should not be so much the size 

 of the ears that should govern in the selection of a variety for seed 

 purposes as the persistency of the seed of the variety to withstand 

 adverse conditions and to produce large yields of shelled corn per 

 stalk and hence per acre. However, in selecting Avithin the same 

 variety, it will usually be advisable to choose for seed those ears, 

 other characteristics being equal, that are of the average or slightly 

 above the average in size for the variety. 



The size of the ear of a variety is not determined solely by 

 heredity, but is greatly influenced by season, soil^ fertilization, culti- 

 vation, etc. ; for the more favorable these conditions are for the 

 growth of the plants, the larger will the ears produced be at maturity, 

 and the more unfavorable these conditions are the smaller they will 

 grow. In other words, if seed of the same variety w^ere planted dur- 

 ing the same year on both rich bottom and ordinary upland soils it 

 would be found at maturitv, with a favorable season, that the corn 



