CORN GKOVVEKS' ASSOCIATION. 37 



corresponding to the number of ears which it is desired to propagate, 

 usually from 40 to 50. These 40 or 50 ears are carefully selected from 

 the very best seed obtainable of any good variety adapted to the locality, 

 or from the stock of the preceding year, and are planted one ear to 

 each row so that the general character of the corn and fodder as pro- 

 duced from each of these ears may be accurately determined. Careful 

 notes are taken regarding each ear to be planted before shelling and the 

 test of its vitality is usually made by germinating a number of kernels. 

 The tips and butts are discarded in order that all grains planted may be 

 exactly alike as to size and general character. A border 3 or 4 rows 

 wide is planted around the plot from the mixed corn left from planting 

 the various rows. This is for the purpose of preventing outside pollin- 

 ation as much as possible and for giving the outside rows exactly the 

 same chance as the others. Careful notes are kept throughout the sea- 

 son of any peculiar or particularly important characteristics shown by 

 each row, such as size of stalk, height of ear, amount and character of 

 the foliage, time of tasseling, time of ripening, number of barren stalks, 

 etc. At the time the tassels appear all stalks which do not show healthy 

 shoots are detasseled to prevent their pollen from fertilizing ears on 

 desirable stalks. Selection for the next year's planting is made in the 

 field that only ears from desirable stalks may be selected. This corn 

 from each row is carefully weighed and the weight finally added to the 

 weight of the remaining corn of the row to get the final yield. Selec- 

 .tion for the next year's planting is made from the most desirable ears of 

 the highest yielding rows. It will be seen at once that such a method 

 ofifers some opportunity for '"in-breeding" or "close-pollination" (and by 

 close pollination is meant the fertilization of the ear by a stalk of the 

 same row) since the stalks grown from kernels of a given ear stand 

 side by side in the row. The effect of inbreeding or too close breeding 

 in plants is the same as in animals and is therefore to be avoided. To 

 obviate this danger some stations follow the practice of detasseling every 

 other row and .then making a selection for the next year only from the 

 highest yielding detasseled rows. The Illinois station has found a dif- 

 ference in yield of several per cent in favor of the detasseled rows 

 which would indicate that this fear of inbreeding is well grounded. 

 However, a part of this might well be due to the fact that the rows not 

 detasseled were very probably more of them close fertilized, since the 

 rows on either side of them produced no pollen. Experiments have not 

 progressed far enough to give specific data as to this point. 



Another micthod which is being used to some extent is that of 

 planting in blocks instead of in hills, mixing the corn from two desir- 



