DETASSELER HAROLD SCHWENK 

 "We pull 'em out like this." 



INSPECTOR LLOYD RICH 

 Fire blocks, 100 hills to the block, ore 

 coreiully excanined ior tassels in each 

 field. More than 1% oi tassels means dis- 

 qualification. 



Hybrid Corn Race Is On 



Producers Fight For Rich Farm Marliet^ 12^000 Acres 



Being Certified 



^N,^ HE biggest race of the century 

 ^— ?^is on in the corn belt. The con- 

 ^^ testants are the producers of 

 hybrid seed corn, big and little. The 

 prize is the rich farm market, now only 

 half developed, comprising more than 

 a million substantial corn farmers who 

 buy (or soon will) hybrid seed in 

 place of the out-moded, open-pollin- 

 ated variety which can't keep pace with 

 its aristocratic, pedigreed relative. 



Up to now there has been a good 

 margin of profit for the efficient, com- 

 mercial hybrid growers. The demand 

 for hybrid corn has expanded so fast 

 that seed men have been able to sell 

 all or nearly all they could produce 

 at prices ranging this year from $7 to 

 $8 a bushel. Last year hybrid seed 

 brought from $9 to $11 a bushel. 



The heavy corn crop and rapid ex- 

 pansion of hybrid seed production in 

 1937 left some producers with a little 

 surplus. Toward the end of the sea- 

 son there were reports of price-cutting. 

 But generally the producers stuck to 

 the standard price of $7 to $8 and were 

 able to move their desirable stocks. 



This year the outlook is for another 

 excellent corn crop. Estimates indi- 

 cate that more than half of all 1938 

 corn planted in Illinois and from a third 

 to a half in the other corn belt states was 

 hybrid. The big producers, and in 

 Illinois, at least, a small army of so- 

 called "independents" with from 10 to 

 80 acres or more each, have spread 

 out with increased acreages of com- 

 mercial seed. There promises to be 

 a greater volume of hybrid seed corn 

 for sale this fall than heretofore. Most 

 of it will be clean, unadulterated seed 



produced by the painstaking process 

 of detasseling the mother or seed-bear- 

 ing rows so that the silks will be fer- 

 tilized only by the father or pollen- 

 bearing rows. (Usually there are three 

 rows of detasseled corn to one of the 

 male parent.) 



But will all the seed offered to the 

 farmer as hybrid be equally as good.' 



Will all the growers of hybrid seed 

 stick zealously to the hard routine of 

 keeping the parent stock absolutely 

 pure? 



Will each one detassel the seed-bear- 

 ing rows 20 to 25 times if necessary 

 to destroy every speck of pollen which 

 if allowed to drop will seriously weak- 

 en the power of the resulting seed to 

 increase yield and quality.' 



The answer is NO if past experience 

 can be relied on as a guide. 



Then how can the farmer who wants 

 good hybrid seed know whose corn 

 to buy.' 



This is not so simple. 



Assuming that all hybrid seed is 

 honestly and carefully produced, there 

 is a wide difference in hybrids. Some 

 mature earlier than others. Some do 

 better on rich ground but not so well 

 on lighter soils. Corn yield tests con- 

 ducted by the State College of Agri- 

 culture in past years reveal that a few 

 hybrids were no better than good va- 

 rieties of common, open-pollinated 

 corn. 



When you order a certain number or 

 variety of hybrid how can you be sure 

 that the bag will contain the seed you 

 ordered .' 



Your only guarantee, finally, is the 

 honesty and integrity of the producer. 



\ 



as a 

 have 



CORN BREEDER ED. W. DOUBET 

 There's a whale oi a diiierence in the root growth of in- 

 breds — an important point in breeding ior insect and 

 disease resistance. 



PROF. I. C. HACKLEMAN WITH MR. DOUBET 



These inbred nubbins aren't much to look ot but they 

 may hold the secret to bigger and better com yields. 



\\) 



,:*v-^' 



