PLANT IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED. 99 



counties, in many individual counties and even on particular soils 

 within counties, are breeding corn peculiarly adapted to their 

 local conditions. For the most part varieties are being perfected 

 so as to yield more of grain per acre, with some attention being 

 paid to the quality of the grain. In some instances special at- 

 tention is paid to secure more protein or more fat to give a grain 

 with a higher feeding value or to suit the needs of some particu- 

 lar manufacture, as in the case of corn oil or wheat with stronger 

 gluten. In other cases, the effort is to so breed varieties as to 

 push the dent corn belt northward, to push the fodder corn belt 

 northward, or to breed corn better suited to regions where 

 droughts are severe. While in the middle West the varieties 

 bearing one ear per stalk are believed to be best, in some sec- 

 tions of the South, where corn is planted wide apart, the evi- 

 dence seems to be that breeders should produce corn with two 

 ears per stalk. Some sections devote themselves to the pro- 

 duction of seed of varieties peculiarly useful in distant regions, 

 as for purposes of thickly growing silage and dry fodder for 

 dairy cows farther north than corn for grain is profitable. One 

 county in Missouri is said to have 10,000 acres of corn which 

 has been bred for large, dense cobs for the making of cob-pipes. 

 Popcorn suited to different localities is bred to expand larger in 

 the popper. 



In wheat breeding the production of varieties peculiarly 

 suited to each local condition presents problems unique in them- 

 selves. In Minnesota, for example, with spring wheats, the ef- 

 fort is to produce sorts which will be so highly rust-resistant that 

 this disease will not be able to reduce yields 10 to 60% annually. 

 In the case of winter wheats for Minnesota the need is for varie- 

 ties bred to greater hardiness that they may endure the winters 

 often not well covered with snow and very cold, and thus carry 

 northward the larger yielding ability of this class of wheats. 

 Durum spring wheats which yield well need to be so bred as 

 to have gluten of tougher quality and the grains to be made less 

 flinty, so as to be more easily ground into high-class flour. 

 There is need of hybrids of these three varieties of wheat, tak- 

 ing out of each parent kind and combining into new varieties the 

 desirable qualities of the several parent varieties. Improved 



