66 THE BOOK OF CORN 



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Breeding Plats Arranged in Rows Each of One Hundred Hills 



The three thousand six hundred hills make a 

 convenient number and can be enlarged or decreased 

 at will of the breeder. The object is to secure the 

 number which will give enough seed for producing 

 stock seed, and yet small enough so that every ear can 

 be carefully studied before a final selection is made. 



The method employed in the work is as follows : 

 In the fall, the ears from each plat or row are put 

 into separate bags and taken to the seed house. In 

 all cases ears should be selected only from well- 

 developed and strong stalks. The bags should be 

 numbered to correspond to the rows from which the 

 corn has been husked. Each bag of corn should be 

 laid out separately, weighed, and the number of ears 

 true to type and of the kind desired picked out and 

 laid by themselves. The ten rows or plats producing 

 the largest yield and number of ears of the type de- 

 sired must have been planted from seed prepotent for 

 the production of that type. Now, if the seed for the 

 next year's seed plat be taken from these plats or rows, 

 this prepotency will be taken advantage of and pre- 

 served. The rest of the corn can be used to plant 

 the fields for growing stock seed. 



Barren Stalks in Breeding Plat — During the sum- 

 mer the breeder should go through the breeding plat 



