No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 321 



MR. FORSYTHE: I thought it might be interesting in this case, 

 because it was rather a hard proposition for me. 



PROF. MENGES: I want to say further that when this general 

 tendency which is in that ear of corn has been taken advantage of, 

 the chances are always in favor of increasing that tendency, and it 

 has been done in the State of Illinois, as I said, from a nutritive 

 ration of one to fourteen or sixteen to one to eight, and in the last 

 year they have narrowed that nutritive ration down from one to six 

 in many instances; I had a letter from Prof. Hopkins in which that 

 statement was made. According to the corn described by Mr. For- 

 sythe, may I ask you whether you had that corn analyzed? 



MR. FORSYTHE: I did; it was analyzed. 



PROF. MENGES: Did you select an ear that had a tendency to 

 produce an increase of protein? 



MR. FORSYTHE: They were simply selected for a certain type 

 of ear, but they were selected under the same conditions and by the 

 same party in both cases. 



PROF. MENGES: There are (exhibiting) two ears of eorn of the 

 same type; that one is developed for quantity, this one not so much 

 so; that is more of the real type of the ear of corn that we have, and 

 the protein in that ear of corn is a good bit larger than this in the 

 same kind. You don't know whether you had ears that had a ten- 

 dency to increase the protein or decrease it, did you? 



MR, FORSYTHE : No, I couldn't say as to that. 



PROF. MENGES: You didn't have that in view in the selection of 

 the seed corn; examine that grain and then you will be able to de- 

 termine. 



The CHAIRMAN: We learned yesterday that the product of corn 

 per acre in Pennsylvania was twenty-nine bushels, was it not? 



PROF. MENGES: In 1903 it was thirty-one bushels. 



The CHAIRMAN: Now why is this? I know people in Pennsyl- 

 vania that don't think anything about raising less than a hundred 

 bushels of corn per acre. Now is it in the seed selection, or is it be- 

 cause the land has lost its fertility that the average is so cut down? 

 I believe that every acre of corn, even in a dry season, can be brought 

 to average from eighty to a hundred bushels. I believe that I have 

 ground prepared and planted in corn on my land, that if I get one 

 or two rains, that I can grow a hundred bushels; it is the lack of 

 cultivation in the ground. 

 21—6—1905 



