82 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



of the stalks; also, in cultivation, if you injured it the least bit, it 

 would invaribly turn so that in cultivating your field going the other 

 way, \ou were sure to injure it again. Consequently Ix^fore you are 

 through with it you have- a very poor stand. 



Another thing: Here is a sample of another corn (holding up 

 an ear). See the lost space in it; it has a shaky tendency on the cob. 

 Those things are to be considered in the line of the work that corn 

 breeders and fanciers have to carry out. In the majority of localities 

 I find that the medium-sized ear, the grains tightly and well set on 

 a medium-sized cob, is what most breeders consider a practical thing — 

 a corn that sets well together, when loosened at one end still remains 

 compact on the ear. It seems to be the concensus of opinion among 

 the various persons who have experimented alohg the line, that such 

 a corn will not shell badly; when you pull off a handful of it and then 

 hand the ear all around, the grains will still stay on the cob. I have 

 mentioned those things in leading up to another point. I suggested that 

 I believe that a general corn standard that all of these types might 

 fomewhat nearly approach would be a good thing to be adopted. 



-If we should subdivide corn, for the purpose of exhibiting it, for 

 the purpose of interesting all the corn growers, into three divisions, my 

 preference would be to call one kind — the quick maturing kind, moder- 

 ately small — ^Northern type; the kind most people would raise I 

 would call Central type; and the slowly maturing corn the Southern 

 type. That is only a matter of distinction between the three, a dis- 

 tinction people would readily take to and understand. I am going to 

 say something that some of you will criticise. When a man criticises a 

 thing you have got him interested and got him to thinking, and if he 

 can think to a purpose, if he is criticising something, he will let some- 

 body else know about it, and this will result in good in the long run. I 

 would not advocate making any particular variety of corn for the North- 

 ern, or for the Central or Southern type. I would let a person take St. 

 Charles White, or anything else, and if he found he could produce the 

 best crop on his land by a manner of planting, or which he would 

 demonstrate to be the best in regard to stand, let him do it with an eye 

 single to those conditions and not have to have one eye, or both, on 

 whether he was raising a variety that would be permitted to enter the 

 show. 



Gentlemen, when we have reached that point, we have reached a 

 practical point that will get almost every farmer in the country to ex- 

 hibit his corn. 



What would be the requirements of those different types of corn 

 in making the basis of classification? My notion is this: The size for 



