34 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



point I hoped to be brought out has not perhaps been covered by any 

 experiments that have been made. If I wanted to select an ear of corn 

 to feed, without knowing anything about its chemical composition, of 

 course, I would take the ear that had the greatest weight of grain on it. 

 But if I select an ear to plant, there is something else to consider — 

 whether it has the power of reproducing itself — whether it has the pro- 

 ductive power, as Dr. Huston brought out in an indirect way, for mak- 

 ing grain or fodder. This is my point — and I take it that our experi- 

 ment stations are in the dark about it, because I have not heard anything 

 on it yet — whether a good ear of corn grown in the poorest part of the 

 field is not a better ear to plant for seed than an equally good ear grown 

 in the best part of the field. That is it exactly. By growing the seed 

 corn on land of at least moderate fertility, we will perhaps form char- 

 acteristics of hardiness and grain productiveness that we will not get if 

 we pamper our seed as we sometimes do our breeding cattle, and in 

 that way impair their reproductive powers. This, I think, is a safe 

 statement that it is better to plant seed on land as good or better than 

 the soil where the seed grew, than it is to plant it on soil poorer than 

 wliere it grew. 



THE WORK OF OUR EXPERIMENT STATIONS ON CORN IM- 

 PROVEMENT. 



(Prof. M. F. Miller, Department Agronomy, Agricultural College.) 



The scientific study of corn has been in progress at our experiment 

 stations since their establishment. Among the first problems attacked 

 were those having to do with corn, but naturally they dealt almost en- 

 tirely during the first decade with methods of culture, such as depth of 

 plowing, time, manner and depth of planting, number of kernels per hill, 

 distance apart of rows, hill and drill culture, depth and frequency of 

 cultivation. Most stations reached more or less definite conclusions 

 regarding all these problems. It was found for instance, that the depth 

 of plowing depended largely upon condition, but in general the deeper 

 the better up to a certain limit, this limit depending upon the soil in 

 question. The distance apart of the hills was also found to be a matter 

 of local condition, the richer the soil the closer the hills, other things 

 equal ; little difference was found in hill or drill culture when growing 

 corn for grain, providing the same number of stalks were grown per 

 acre and the matter again became one of soils largely, as some soils 

 will bear one way cultivation better than others because they are not 



