78 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Dr. Huston. — Not peat lands are they? 



Dr. Tucker. — Yes, rather peaty. 



Dr. Huston. — Enough to burn? 



Dr. Tucker. — I do not know. I should think not. There is quite 

 a little sand mixed in with it. 



Mr. . — Do you ever investigate whether the quantity of yield 



per acre had anything to do with the percent of starch or protein in the 

 corn? 



Dr. Tucker. — No. There is a question that I would like very much 

 to have discussed and on which I would like to have the opinions of 

 those who have formed any, and that is the advisability of breeding corn 

 lor a high per cent of protein, to be placed on the market or used by the 

 feeders. Is it profitable for a man who has the ground to grow corn 

 which requires a large amount of nitrogen to augment the natural ten- 

 dency of corn to grow protein or is it better to grow a kind of corn that 

 will produce oil and grow alfalfa, cow peas, clovers or some of the 

 leguminous plants and get his nitrogen from the air rather than from 

 the soil? 



Mr. . — Does not the protein in the corn weigh heavier than 



the starch? Does not the flinty corn outweigh the other? 



Dr. Tucker. — Yes, the flinty corn outweighs the other. There are 

 two kinds of starch, horny and flaky. Weighed per grain or ear, the 

 flinty corn would produce a little heavier weight, that is the struck half 

 bushel of the flinty corn would weigh heavier than a struck half bushel 

 of the rough corn, but where weighed per acre, we get the greater yield 

 from the rough corn, we are finding down in Scott county. 



There was some complaint about the Boone County White corn be- 

 cause it was sort of chafify or light weight, a struck half bushel weigh- 

 ing only 2y pounds, while the more flinty corn would weigh 29 pounds, 

 but they did not take into account how much area they had to go over 

 in their land to get that half bushel. One car of the chafify corn would 

 produce more than one ear of the flinty corn because the kernel was so 

 much deeper. 



Mr. Gabbert. — I prefer the dent corn always to feed to cattle com- 

 pared with the flinty corn, unless you grind the latter. 



Col. Waters. — In my judgment it would be unwise for the farmer 

 to breed for a high per cent of protein because he wiU have enough 

 to do to increase the actual yield, disregarding the protein and to raise 

 this protein in other crops. I totally disregard the idea in farm practice 

 of endeavoring to develop especially high i-)rotcin corn. Put all your 

 emphasis on increase in yield, because we can go forward in the develop- 



