90 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Having outlined an ideal type of corn that any farmer can pro- 

 duce, let us see what it would mean in bushels of corn planted by check 

 row, three feet eight inches would have 3240 hills to the acre. Two 

 stalks to the hill, each stalk bearing a ten-inch ear would mean over 

 niinety bushels to the acre. I say over ninety, for I have weighed hundreds 

 of sample ears, and they will average over one pound each, and if well 

 filled and matured, will shell out one hundred bushels. What does the 

 farmer want with bigger corn than that? But let us drop to nine 

 inches in length and to 14 ounces each, and we get right close to eighty 

 bushels. Eight-inch ears should weigh 12 ounces, and that would mean 

 sixey-seven bushels. But suppose we try raising nubbins weighing only 

 eight ounces each and get 45 bushels to the acre, and we are then five 

 bushels above the maximum average yield of the State for any one 

 year in her history, and fifty per cent above our ten-year average. It 

 is evident then that our weak point in corn production is not want of 

 size of ears, but want of uniformity. It is safer and easier to get uni- 

 formity in the smaller and medium types than in the large. I once got 

 a package of corn from Washington called the "Giant Normandy." I 

 gave it a good trial. The ears varied in size from two ounces to two 

 pounds. It had no redeeming trait; in fact, it was a sport without any 

 prepotency toward uniformity. If the INIissouri farmer could procure a 

 strain of corn with fixed prepotency to such a degree that every stalk 

 would produce an car, even a ten-ounce ear, it would beat anything he 

 has now. I repeat, the great need of today is uniformity in pro- 

 ductivity. This trait may be bred into the corn by selecting from the 

 rows producing the greatest number of ears of a uniform size. The 

 idea of selecting the abnormal in size is only aggravating the evil. 



Uniformity in car development can only be had from uniform stalk 

 growth. We often notice great divergence in size and form of stalks 

 all growing along under apparently the same favorable conditions ; some 

 small anrl spindling and others low and stocky. These differences may 

 be due to one of two causes ; first, inherent tendency to variation for 

 lack of fixedness of type, or it may be due, as Mr. Ilolden contends, 

 to variable vitality in seed planted. The spindling dwarf or runty stalks 

 might be ihe result of weakened seed, but the abnormally tall stalks 

 and the tendency to barrenness is more apt to be inherent. In either 

 case, uniformity of grain from typical, uniform stalks, grain strong in 

 germinating power to be had by using grain of good size with full, 

 healthy germ, is a means of securing uniform stand and iuiili.>rni i>ro- 

 duction. In my judgment it would be well if the farmers would discard 

 the greater majority of various types now in use an(l use only two 

 varieties, one of white and one of yellow. Or if for feeding purposes 



