the kindness of Mr. F. D. Coburn, secretary of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture of Kansas, I present a picture of the result of five years of 

 inbreeding and crossbreeding. 



To prevent inbreeding was one of the first steps taken after choosing 

 the type. Last spring, through the newspapers, I requested those 

 interested to plant six ears of corn in six parallel rows. Corn 

 will soon be shooting and tasselling. To prevent inbreeding or the 

 pollen from the tassel fertilizing altogether the silk on the ear of the 

 same stalk, just as the tassel appears cut out every tassel on one-half 

 of row No. 2 ; then get over on row No. 3 and cut every tassel to 

 the end of it ; then at that end begin on row No. 4 and cut tassels half- 

 way back ; then change to No. 5 and cut to the end, as follows : 



* * 



Then go through the corn that has not been detasselled and detassel 

 every barren or undesirable stalk (that is, every one that has no ear 

 upon it). If you desire a variety of more than one ear to the stalk, 

 then detassel all the stalks having less than two ears. If a stalk has 

 its ears too high and tends to produce too much stalk, then detassel 

 these, and thus fix the desired type. 



Where you have a field of one kind of corn you might select any 

 portion of it for your seed patch and treat it as recommended for the 

 six rows above. Detasselling should be done as soon as the tassel 



^5 



appears 



BARREN STALKS. 



Barren stalks are said to produce a greater amount of pollen, there- 

 fore should be promptly removed, or the pollen will cause the shoots 

 upon the good stalks to produce ears that will bring other barren 

 stalks. 



Barren stalks were found to be perhaps more detrimental than 

 inbreeding. The loss from such cause is no surmise or guesswork, 

 but can be easily proven. Go through a row of corn, count the barren 

 stalks as compared to those bearing ears, and you have the proportion 

 of loss. If you and a neighbor are passing through your or his field, 

 let each of you take two rows and count as above, and then calculate 

 what would be the increase if every stalk bore an ear. You have 

 the stalk, and your fertilizer and land are taxed to produce it. All 

 that is lacking is the ear. This loss was reported to be at least 



