CORN. 307 



Bushels 

 Shelled corn. 



Seed-corn A yielded with manure, . . . . .110 



Seed-corn A yielded without manure, ..... 68 

 Seed-corn B yielded with manure, ..... 55 



Here the better seed yielded, without manure, more than the inferior seed with manure ; 

 and under equivalent circumstances the better seed yielded just double the crop of the 

 inferior. 



After thinking over this result, which seemed to me surprising, I concluded to attempt 

 the forming of a seed-corn of prolific habit. I became aware that the appearance of the ear 

 was but a secondary consideration, the past cropping of the seed being the primary. The 

 summary of my procedure is this: as corn has an hereditary character, I secured prolific 

 male parentage by carefully castrating the tassels from the barren stalks in my seed-growing 

 field, and then selected the best ears of the crop for next year s seeding. The results have 

 been marked. I have secured prolificacy, uniformity of ear, and a heavy corn-grain.&quot; 



Thoroughbred types are as essential in the production of plants of a high order and the 

 consequent improvement of crops as in breeding live-stock, and a carefully cultivated, pure-bred 

 variety of corn is as much superior to an indifferently cultivated mixed kind, in transmitting 

 its good qualities to its product, as a thoroughbred animal is in this respect superior to a 

 grade. 



Some farmers cultivate a special small field or plot for seed with great care, and then 

 select only the best of this crop for planting. This is a practice to be commended. The plot 

 should always be planted at a distance from any other in the field, whether of the same variety 

 or otherwise, as if near and of the same kind, even, there will be a liability of some of the 

 ears being fertilized by the pollen of inferior plants or of the suckers, the product of which 

 will result in inferior or infertile plants. Imperfect or barren corn-plants, those bearing no 

 ears, are as injurious in their effect in a seed-plot as an inferior male among choice, thor 

 ough-bred live-stock ; they perpetuate their kind. Consequently the corn-grower should not 

 permit a barren corn-plant to cast its pollen in his field. The perfect corn-plant bears a stam- 

 inate (the tassel) called the male flower, and a pistillate or female flower called &quot;the silk&quot;; 

 the imperfect plant has therefore the tassel or blossom, but no silk, and will produce no grain ; 

 but if permitted to stand in the field with the other plants, it will cast its pollen upon some of 

 those plants and fertilize them, and the crop produced from the seed thus fertilized would be 

 liable to be barren plants, and the yield of the crop greatly deteriorated. By going through 

 the field and cutting off the blossoms or tassels of all plants that have no ears formed or silk, 

 the difficulty is obviated, for such blossoms will not then be left to fertilize other plants. 

 Many planters go so far as to cut down every such stalk entire. This should be done before 

 the tassels are fully out or able to shed their pollen. In this manner the imperfect seed will 

 soon be bred out, and the prolific qualities of the crop be largely increased. By selecting 

 for seed ears from a stalk bearing two or more, the yield of the product of such seed will be 

 greater than from stalks bearing only one ear, as the prolific tendency will become in a short 

 time fixed, and a characteristic of the variety. From such ears should be selected those that 

 are uniform in every way as compared with each other, having small cobs, the kernels com 

 pactly placed on the cob in straight rows, and uniform in shape and size throughout. If a 

 different variety be grown near a seed-plot it will be impossible to maintain the seed pure, as 

 the pollen will be carried even quite a distance in the air, or by insects that collect on the 

 blossoms, and this explains why sometimes an occasional ear or a few kernels of an ear of 

 another kind will be found mixed in the product of the pure seed. 



It is not uncommon to find occasionally a few kernels of red, blue, or sweet corn mixed 

 in this way with an entirely different variety. Mr. J. E. Read says respecting the distance to 

 which pollen may be carried and its affecting adjacent or distant fields : 



