328 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



variety affords ample opportunity for the development of strains 

 in which the character of early maturity is hereditary. 



VIGOR. 



Vigor, as evidenced by circumference of stalk below the ear, 

 by freedom from disease, by leaf development and especially by 

 ability to stand upright until harvest, is a character well worthy 

 of consideration. It is not enough that a plant produce a good ear ; 

 it should be able to carry the ear to harvest. That this character 

 is hereditary; that some mother plants can transmit it to their 

 offspring, while others transmit the opposite, is, I believe, pretty 

 well established. Last year in an ear-row breeding plot at the 

 Ohio Station we had growing side by side, rows planted from in- 

 dividual ears, one of which had 56 and another 49 per cent, of its 

 plants broken over before harvest. Between, and upon either side 

 of these were other rows of which, in one instance, not a single 

 plant, and in two others 3 and 6 per cent., respectively, were 

 broken. The ability to stand upright did not result from having a 

 lighter load to carry for the row of which 56 per cent, of the stalks 

 broke over yielded 75.6 bushels per acre, while the row having 

 every plant upright yielded at the rate of 114.7 bushels per acre. 



In a recent number of the Breeders Gazette the Illinois Ex- 

 periment Station reports similar results from an ear-row breeding 

 plot of this season (1907), in which rows, side by side, show a 

 variation of from 5 to 86 per cent, in the number of plants going 

 down in a severe windstorm. 



So far as my observation goes, the breaking over of corn 

 plants presents a serious problem in very many corn fields. I be- 

 lieve that we can largely solve it by giving attention to the vigor 

 and stiffness of the plants from which we select our seed. In other 

 words, we must look to heredity for its solution. 



POSITION OF EAR. 



In the selection of mother plants the position of the ear on 

 the stalk should be noted and extremes avoided. The proper height 

 of ear will have to be determined by each grower for his own con- 

 ditions, remembering that the continuous selection of the higher 

 ears tends probably toward later maturity, as also the selection of 

 extremely low ears tends to reduce the size of plant, shorten the 

 growing season, and, of course, to decrease the yield. 



The seed and market condition of corn is greatly favored if 

 the tip of the ear points downward, thus shedding water. 



