CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION. 45 



SO many other things to I'ook after. (Jn the uthcr hand there is danger 

 of buying your seed corn from a breeder if you get it from a distant' 

 place and change its environment too much that it may deteriorate. 

 You might possibly improve it by the change, but can only tell by trial. 

 I think it a good plan for the farmers in a neighborhood to have some 

 intelligent farmer in that neighborhood make experiments with different 

 varieties on the typical neighborhood soil and find out about what va- 

 riety seems best adapted to that neighborhood. Or let a neighborhood 

 form an association, as they have done at Bunceton or Qarksville — ap- 

 point a man to experiment and find out what kind is adapted to that 

 neighborhood and agree to buy the seed from him. Let the man best 

 situated for it and most inclined to breed the corn, be selected. 



The average farmer does not try to keep up his cattle by breeding 

 purebreds. He must buy his purebred stock from a breeder. Is it pos- 

 sible for every farmer to devote the same attention to breeding live 

 stock that the breeder does? I do not believe it is. Nor do I believe 

 it is possible for the average farmer to devote the same attention to corn 

 breeding as the expert seed breeder does. I do not believe it is prac- 

 ticable for every farm;er to take up this question of corn breeding. If 

 the farmers of the neighborhood will form an association and determine 

 in some way what variety of corn is best adapted to their neighborhood, 

 then grow one kind of corn, or two kinds if necessary, and buy no seed 

 except from the seed grower, it seems to me that that is a practical plan 

 and will keep our varieties practically pure. 



Mr. Carroll — Aren't they doing that in St. Charles county? 



Mr. Ellis — Yes. The farmers of St. Charles county have devel- 

 oped the St. Charles White variety, and have discouraged the growing 

 of any other variety. I do not think that they have adopted the plan of 

 one man growing the seed. 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS AS SUPPLEMENTS TO FARM 

 YARD MANURES AND LEGUMES. 



(Dr. H. A. Huston, St. Louis, Mo.) 



Crops remove certain things from, the soil and these must be re- 

 placed if productiveness is to be maintained. If all the crops raised on 

 the farm were fed on the farm, and all the manure returned to the land, 

 the land would, in theory at least, become more productive. The in- 

 crease would be due to a small amount of nitrogen received from the 



