March 16, 1918 



H R T I C U L T U K E 



247 



LETTERS FROM AN OLD TO A YOUNG CtARDENER 



Breeding Sweet Corn 



Zoa saceliiuiiia ov sweet corn, is supposed to have 

 first come to tlie notice of white nieu at Plymoutli; 

 Massacluisetts, tlie seed having been obtained from 

 American Indians in the Susquehanna country. 

 Although a gardener is not much interested in growing 

 any other variety, 1 want to begin with a few words 

 about a reform needed in breeding, growing and mar- 

 keting field corn. A farmer shonld be able to buy the 

 seed with a certificate giving its chemical com[iosition. 

 He should be able to find 

 a market for varieties 

 adapted to .special purposes, 

 of w-hich a few examples 

 are here mentioned. For 

 a glucose factory it should 

 contain little protein, more 

 starch and oil. The latter 

 brings the highest price 

 per pound. As a food for 

 horses the amount of ]iro- 

 tein should be large, for 

 this is the tissue building 

 element, and the starch and 

 oil less, to avoid undue fat- 

 tening. For pigs,, where we 

 want fat, the starch and oil 

 should be abundant. 



In trying to improve 

 sweet corn for table use we 

 may employ selection alone, 

 or hybridization followed 

 by continual selection. Se- 

 lection to improve and keep 

 up quality is generally 

 thought to l>e a quite mod- 

 ern idea. It was known 

 and used by tlie Romans, 

 as shown by the following 

 quotation from a book by 

 P. H.. entitled, Roman 

 FaiTH Management, being 

 a translation from the 

 Latin of Cato and X'aiio. 

 and moreover a most inter- 

 esting work to anyone who 

 loves the land — "I jiave 

 seen those seeds on whose 

 selection much lime ami 



lalior had Ixvii s|)erit, ne\crlheless degenerate if man 

 did Hill e\ery yeai' vigorously separate b\ band 

 the largest specimens." !Most varieties of sweet 

 corn are eithei' mutants or obtained by simple selec- 

 tion. Any field offers (i])portunities for selection, 

 for no two plants are exactly alike. This was well 

 shown in my attempts to select seed to use in hybridiz- 

 ing. One of those chosen was a yellow variety, which 

 came to me from Derry, New Hampshire, under the 

 name Odlden Sweet, about thirty years ago. T^nfortii- 



FiSiiio 1 



nately this .-ecd and its hybrids were lost in an early' 

 White Mountain freeze, and no more could be obtained. 

 Ill testing for a substitute, seed from plants that grew 

 I rom seed obtained under the name of Golden Bantam 

 was ehosen. The different lots of Golden Bantam seed 

 produced plants that varied greatly. Evidently at that 

 tinu' dealers were .selling more than one strain under 

 this name and the seed from each dealer was mixed. 

 Siiuie plants were .seven feet high, others four. The 



number of ears on a plant 

 and their size varied. I 

 found yellow, wdiite and 

 blue kernels on some cobs. 

 The ears also varied greatly 

 in sweetness. So far as my 

 experience goes, the right 

 way to begin an experiment 

 to breed a better strain of 

 sweet corn for home use, 

 would be to test all the 

 kinds advertised iu the seed 

 catalogues as exti'a sweet, 

 buying the seed from a 

 considerable number of 

 sources. Though coming 

 to you under the same 

 name you will find, as I 

 did, that the seed will pro- 

 duce plants different iu 

 many ways. \Vlien the ears 

 are in the milk, strip back 

 tlic husl<s carefully and 

 taste the kernels. Replace 

 the husks ajid mark those 

 tliat seem superior, keejuug 

 a record of them. When 

 the seed is ripe .select the 

 best from the two most sat- 

 isfactory ears and use them 

 for the next crop. Do this 

 for several years until you 

 get two fine strains that 

 breed fairly true, of course 

 growing them in fields wide 

 apart. Then the next year 

 begin the crossing to break 

 the types, hoping to get a 

 superior strain. This was 

 till- plan 1 Idljiiued with satisfaction, our guests re- 

 mark in 'i' during tlie last three autumns on the 

 sweetness and flavor of the corn on the table, T^nfor- 

 tunatcly 1 may need to begin again, for everybody in our 

 neighborhood lost corn, beans, melons and squashes by 

 freezing. The corn was in the milk and did not fill. 

 The beans split in drying, I tried to protect a few 

 ]»lants of hybrid co.rn and melons but the results are in 

 doubt, .\11 uncovered plants froze stiff. 



Corn, or more properly maize, is the easiest plant in 



