Improving Ccrn by Seed Selection. 



567 



ready to plant, shell these twenty-five ears, discarding imperiect kernels 

 at apex and base, and keeping the grain from each ear in a separate 

 bag. Number these bags, i, 2, 3, etc., up to 25. 



1909 operations. We wilf assume that planting operations begin in 

 the spring of 1909. Select a small field where the soil is uniform andwhich 

 is at some distance from any other corn field, at least from 500 to 1000 

 feet, and which is large enough for fifty rows twenty -five hills long. 

 Plant twenty-five hills in each row with five kernels per hill. It is 

 desirable to plant 50 rows so that two rows in difi'erent parts of the 



Fig. 3 . — Product of a 25 hill progeny, from one select ear showing late maturity: 



ears on left unripe; ears on right ripe. 



field may be planted from each ear. The soil in New York is in 

 general so uniform that the use of two rows is advocated in order 

 to get a more reliable test of the yielding capacity of each of the select 

 ears. Rows i and 26 should be planted from bag i, rows 2 and 27 from 

 bag 2, and so on until rows 25 and 50 are planted from bag 25. In this 

 way the grower will have left over about one-half of the seed of each 

 ear, numbered the same as the corresponding rows. Save this seed care- 

 fully, keeping each lot in its numbered bag. 



After the corn in this seed patch is well up, thin uniformly to three 

 stalks per hill. Should the land be poor thin to two stalks per hill. 

 Cultivate just the same as an ordinary crop. 



