340 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



differ mightily! The four ears that would win out such a season 

 as this, would undoubtedly have come a long way from winning 

 out last season, or, perhaps, next. If one is endeavoring to build 

 up a best strain, or variety, for average season, it would seem that 

 many different seasons should pick out the winners whose blood is 

 to be fused into a composite strain adapted to average conditions. 

 And this, I take it, is one of the strongest points in the system of 

 breeding I have outlined to you. 



Corn growers of Missouri ! The problem of corn improvement 

 is a vast one. We have hardly entered upon its solution. Of our 

 other farm crops the same may be said. With the average yield 

 of corn in the United States around 24 bushels per acre, and wheat 

 at 13.5, it would seem that there is plenty of room for improvement. 

 Much can be done to increase these yields by better fertilization 

 and better culture. "Comparisons are odious," and I shall make 

 none, but simply say that great possibilities for improvement are 

 opening up before us as a result of breeding. There are Dan 

 Patchens and Brown Bessies and Roosevelts in every corn field. 

 I believe that we have, in the ear-row test, a means of finding them, 

 and in the system of breeding hastily outlined a method of perpetu- 

 ating them in a portion, at least, of their excellence. 



With the hundreds of bright men at work along all plant 

 breeding lines, at all our experiment stations — and no station is 

 more alert, or has these matters better in hand than your own — 

 with the host of wide-awake farmers of the corn belt attacking 

 these problems with a keenness that is putting the station men on 

 their mettle we have reason to expect that things are going to hap- 

 pen during the next ten years. I await the outcome of this general 

 attack with intense interest. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Crabtree — I think we cannot afford to forget the import- 

 ant things brought out by the speaker. 



He discussed this question: How do we get that for which 

 we are searching? How do we proceed after we have found that? 

 And what do we accomplish in the line of experiment that has been 

 carried out for the purpose of proving those things? The in- 

 fluence of heredity was a strong point. That will apply to plant 

 and animal life as well, and will apply with great force to the grow- 

 ing of the corn plant. The speaker suggested that we try to find 

 what we are searching for through the seed plot method of breed- 



