No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 307 



PROF. WATTS: Yes, you will grow just as good a plant. 



A Member: What do you consider the best early tomato? 



PROF. WATTS: Maules Early is a splendid early tomato. 



MR. SCHWARZ: Have you tried the Livingston? 



PROF. WATTS: It is rather a different tomato from any that 

 is on the market; I think it is a fine tomato. 



The CHAIRMAN: We will now take up No. 1 of Wednesday after 

 noon program, which was deferred at that time on account of our 

 visit to Mr. Kates' farm. We will now hear from Prof. Franklin 

 Menges, of York, Pa., on "The Advantages of Corn Breeding to the 

 Pennsylvania Farmer." 



Prof. Menges read the following paper: 



THE ADVANTAGES OF CORN BREEDING TO THE PENNSYL- 

 VANIA FARMER. 



By Prof. Fhankhn Menges, York, Pa. 



I shall not discuss the botany of corn but simply say that it is a 

 member of the large grass family, that the botanical name is zea 

 Mays, that it is an annual, growing, ripening and producing seed 

 and dying in one summer, and that in the classification of farm crops 

 it belongs to the cereals or plants producing a mealy seed which is 

 prepared for food. 



In discussing the subject of the advantages of corn breeding, it 

 may be said that Illinois, which is a corn breeding state, produces 

 annually nearly 400,000,000 bushels of corn and consumes 260,000,000, 

 while the State of Pennsylvania, the second dairy state in the Union, 

 produced in 1903 45,500,000 bushels, and in 1899 nearly 52,000,000. 

 The crop of 1903 averaged 31.2 bushels per acre; the crop of 1899 

 a little over 29 bushels per acre. 



About one hundred average size ears make a bushel and on an 

 acre of corn, when the hills are 3 feet 6 inches apart each way, there 

 are over 8,000 stalks with two stnlks to the hill and under normal 

 conditions, should we raise a normal size ear on each stalk, we 

 would have at least 80 bushels of normal ears per acre, whereas, 

 with our present practices we have only a little over one-third of 

 what we should have. The question with us now is how can we 



