PROJECT 3 



FINDING THE HIGH YIELDING EAR FOR SEED 



Material. Twenty or thirty ears of seed corn of the variety to be tested for each student, and an 

 equal number of corn rows 125 feet long. It is desirable to have different students test different varieties. 

 The best local varieties should be tested and also the varieties recommended by the State Agricultural 

 College. 



Directions. Select twenty or thirty seed ears of the variety or strain best adapted to the neighbor- 

 hood or that your father grows as his main crop and plant one row, 125 feet long, from the seed of each 

 ear. This will require about four rows of kernels from the ear. Number each ear to correspond to 

 the row in which the kernels are planted, ear No. 1 being planted in row No. 1, etc. The 

 remainder of each ear should be tagged, wrapped, and put away for use after the results of the experi- 

 ment have been determined. Plant the same number of kernels in each row and give all rows the same 

 treatment. 



At harvest ascertain the percentage of a perfect stand in each row ; the number and percentage of 

 barren stalks ; the date on which the plants of each row begin to mature, observing which rows are early, 

 which are late, and the number of days between maturity of the earliest and latest rows. When the corn 

 is mature, husk each row separately and weigh the ears of each. Record the weight of corn in each row. 

 Fill in the blanks on the following page. 



Select thirty or forty of the best ears from the ten highest-yielding rows for seed for the next year's 

 ear-row test and save all the other good ears from these rows as seed for the main crop. It is not safe 

 to restrict the choice of seed to one or two of the highest-yielding rows, because the corn would become 

 too closely inbred. 



The ears of corn from which the seed came that produced the highest-yielding rows are to be planted 

 in the seed plot, and the corn thus produced used for seed the next year. 



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