Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 365 



that sometimes these things may be valuable to teach a lesson. 

 In making a wide classification we find that in various places con- 

 test work among young people is one of the most valuable things 

 that we can inaugurate. 



Maybe I ought not to say it, but there is not one man in ten 

 who uses just a little gumption in the selection of his seed corn. 

 He does not understand the principles of selecting seed corn. We 

 go to the show and pass judgment as to how the ears will rank in 

 the show, but no man in the universe knows enough about corn to 

 know which ear is the better producer. We can only determine 

 that by an actual trial and by the study of the plants on which the 

 corn grew, and we cannot study the plant from the ear. We find 

 sometimes that there are a few things that may indicate yield in 

 corn, but the only true indication is by a study of the plant itself. 

 In a contest we had in Pettis county the men brought in fifty good 

 stalks of corn pulled up and with the ears attached. The contest 

 was for the class to pick out ten stalks with the ears on them that 

 they preferred for seed, and it was surprising how rapidly they 

 learned that, and it is also surprising that we have not thought 

 of a great many of these things before today. The leaf system and 

 the root system correspond exactly to the lungs and digestive 

 apparatus of an animal, and no animal can be a good one with poor 

 lungs and poor digestive organs, and no corn can be good corn with- 

 out good vitality. We can give the contest work so far as corn 

 judging is concerned, but the more important thing at this time 

 is the selecting of the ear from the stalk, and that assists in 

 broadening our classification. 



In the classification for the various products of the farm we 

 have a great deal yet to learn so far as quality is concerned, or 

 productive capacity that we may be able to determine by individu- 

 ality. We have about as many different ideas about seed potatoes 

 as we have potato growers. Soms men contend that the large, some 

 the small and some the medium seed should be used, and each one 

 has his line of argument. One man will ask me when he should 

 plow his ground, so far as being dry is concerned, in the fall or the 

 spring. I tell him I don't know and he says he does know, and 

 he tells me to plow in the fall, and the next one says plow in the 

 spring. Both disagree. So that there are conditions that modify 

 these things. 



We find there is just as much difference in the small grain, 

 also in the clover, as we find in the corn. We find where we plant 



