LECTURES AND ESSAYS. 437 



tivation, seem to forget that the foundation of a good crop is good seed, and 

 pay no attention to its selection. 



There is no food plant more pliable, more readily varied in any given 

 direction under intelligent and well directed care than the corn plant. 

 It adapts itself to a wide range of climate. It will grow on all kinds of soil. 

 It is at the same time very sensitive to surrounding influences, and its pro- 

 ductiveness depends upon soil, season, and the treatment it receives. 

 Eecorded experiments in the selection and crossing of corn for seed are 

 numerous, and in no case do they fail to show the great advantage to be 

 derived from care thus bestowed. 



Prolific seed of good pedigree has produced from 100 to 160 bushels per 

 acre under ordinary treatment. There is an authentic record of 200 bush- 

 els and 12 quarts raised on one acre, the result of good seed, high fertility 

 and good cultivation. This was a phenomenal yield ; it shows, however, 

 what can be done by persistent effort. Yields of from 100 to 150 bushels 

 per acre are not phenomenal, they have been too often produced. The 

 wonder is that the frequency of these results has not created a more wide- 

 spread desire to equal or excel them ; perhaps the desire has existed, but the 

 inclination has not given way to it, or perhaps there has been a fear that a 

 systematic practice of seed selection and breeding would involve too much 

 work. Of course such a system involves additional labor, but results 

 obtained show that it can well be afforded. Nature does not pour out her 

 richest gifts or reveal her secrets unasked, she may, and does in her freaks, 

 as we call them, hold out tempting baits, and these are to the intelligent 

 observer, invitations which he is glad to accept. She is ever ready to extend 

 aid, and he who essays the improvement of his crops through the honest 

 application of the principles of reproductive life, need have no fear that his 

 efforts will not be rewarded. 



There are several things that need consideration in the selection of seed 

 corn ; manifestly the size of the ear, the shape and quality of the grain are 

 not the characters solely to be depended upon when looking toward perfection 

 in the crop. They are in themselves good points — important points — but 

 the first consideration should be the character of the plant itself. Its pro- 

 lificacy — an all important point — its vigor and habit of growth, position of 

 the ears, and time of ripening. 



Having selected the plants that best show these characters, from them 

 take the best ears, not necessarily the largest, but those that in shape, 

 quality of grain and size of cob, come nearest to your ideal of a perfect ear. 

 The characters of the ear and grain are more easily varied than are the 

 characters of the plant itself, and for this reason they should when com- 

 mencing a systematic selection be considered as of secondary importance. 

 There is another point, which, if left out of our calculations, would continu- 

 ally tend to nullify all our efforts at improvement through attention to the 

 characters we have named. The corn plant as you know is monoecious, that 

 is, the two sexes are borne in separate flowers on the same plant. In the 

 silk as it is called, we have the long styles of the fertile flowers which pro- 

 ject from the young ear. In the tassels we have the sterile, pollen produc- 

 ing male flowers. Now, in looking through a corn field we find a good 

 many stalks that produce pollen freely, but bear no ears. Pollen from these 

 sterile plants will fertilize ears on some of the fertile plants. These 

 ears then have as parents a fertile mother, and a sterile father, and under 



