200 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



In respect to yield there is much room for improvement. The average 

 yield per acre in the United States is scarcely one- fourth what it might and 

 should be, and, strange as it may seem, it is not greatest in the sections 

 where corn naturally thrives the best. For instance, an average of the pro- 

 duction in each of the New England States for the past ten years is 36.49 

 bushels per acre, while the average production in Illinois during the same 

 ame is 31.55 bushels, and in Iowa, 30.93 bushels per acre. This must be due 

 to the fact that in the New England Sfates much more care is given to the 

 few acres that are planted, than to the large cornfields of the States of 

 Illinois and Iowa, for one can scarcely believe that with the same care in all 

 respects as much corn can be grown on an acre in Vermont as on an acre in 

 Illinois. Grouping some of the States according to their geographical situa- 

 tion and averaging their corn production without considering the acreage 

 of the various States, we find the average number of bushels per acre for 

 the ten years from 1892 to 1901 to be as follows : New England States, 

 36.49; New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and 

 North Dakota, 27.6; Nw Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, 

 West Virginia and Virginia, 26.97; Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, 

 Kansas, Missouri and Kentucky, 27.38; South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, 

 Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, 13.59. It will be noticed that the group 

 containing Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and 

 Kentucky, the most extensive corn producing States of the Union, give an 

 average of but 27.38 bushels per acre, while the average of the New England 

 States is 9 bushels greater. The general average for the entire United 

 States for the ten years from 1892 to 1901, inclusive, is but 23.51 bushels per 

 acre. While this low average is to some extent due to lack of attention in 

 various respects, such as cultivation, etc., it is also in a very large measure 

 due to the poor quality of seed corn that is planted throughout the country. 



Much credit is due to individual growers in certain sections or counties 

 of various States for instituting methods of seed selection and culture which 

 have proved so satisfactory that they have been adopted by many of their 

 neighbors. This accounts in a great degree for the usual good crops in some 

 counties, while other counties, equally as fertile, produce much lower aver- 

 ages. In some sections, noted for their large acreages and many bushels, the 

 corn is of very poor appearance and quality because the effort is to grow as 

 many acres as possible rather than to grow the best corn and much of it to 

 the acre. At one of the great corn shipping centers of the United States, a 

 heavy corn buyer made this remark: "Our corn looks a great deal better 

 after it is shelled than it does in the ear." 



The secret of improving yields lies in causing every stalk to produce 

 abundantly, and this is accomplished by planting seed from stalks that pro- 

 duce well, and which also have the power of transmitting their productive- 

 ness to their offspring. Valuable strains of this kind can be obtained only by 

 persistent effort. Exact records greatly facilitate this work. 



In working to increase production, much attention must be given to the 

 quality of the crop produced. Eighty bushels per acre of ear corn that yields 

 80 per cent of shelled corn is not as desirable as seventy-five bushels per acre 

 of a corn that furnishes 90 per cent.; nor is seventy bushels of shelled corn 



