MAIZE. II'' 



In those districts where the autumn or winter is wel a large amount of 

 maize is spoilt in those ears which stand erect at maturity, being held so by 

 a short thick supporting shank, especially if the liusk covering is deficient. 

 I i these districts it is desirable to select ears which turn down at maturity. 

 On the North Coast, where such insect pests . -is »eevi] and grain moth are 

 abundant, much damage is- done where the husk does not completely covei 

 the tip of the ear. for in those ears which an' completely and tightly covered 

 no trace of weevil ran be found. By increasing the number of such ears by 

 selection it is possible to keep the crop longer in the field, and the unhusked 

 ears longer in storage. 



Field selection may lie done during the ordinary process of harvesting, a 



small box being attached to the dray or waggon in which the selected ears 

 are placed, to he kept separate in the barn from the bulk, and there subjected 

 to a further scrutiny and selection, as in the case of ordinary barn selection 

 already mentioned. 



Apart from the improvement in field characters which can he effected by 



selection in the field, the yield can also he increased by this method. 

 Increases of up to 7 bushels per acre have been obtained from field- 

 selected over barn-selected seed, but for the best results both field and barn 

 selection should be practised. 



Improvement of Yield by Ear-row Tests. 



Having considered all the visible factors in selection, both in the ear it self 

 and in the mother plant in the field, it might be thought that no further 

 progress can he made in improvement by selection. Such, however, is not 

 the case. It is only within recent years that a method was disco veied in 

 America by which the yield and the quality of maize can be still further and 

 more rapidly improved. This method, which easily surpasses all ot hers in 

 obtaining results, is known as improvement by the "ear-to-row ' test. This 

 is simply a test in separate rows of equal length planted with grain from 

 individual selected ears. Ears are selected to the best of the farmer's ability. 

 as far as hand and eye can judge, but when compared in an actual tost of 

 yielding capacity by the ear-row test remarkable differences are obtained. 



A typical test plot has given such differences between individual rows 

 that the highest and lowest weights harvested from two separate rows of 

 e.pial length, sown with different ears, were 225 lb. and 85 lb. respectively. 

 To plant these rows, which were about 4 chains in length, only half the seed 

 from each ear is used, the other half being kept until the following year, 

 fly marking these ear residues with a number corresponding to the row in 

 which the fellow grain has been sown, we are able to say, when the results 

 of the test are known, which are the high-yielding and which the low-yielding 

 ears. The residues of the best five or six out of the forty or fifty ears so 

 tested are planted in a plot isolated from, or planted later or earlier than 

 other adjacent maize to prevent cross-pollination ; we thus have in this plot 

 all the high-yielding strains freely intercrossing, but no others, so that the 

 low-yielding stivtins have been eliminated. Seed from this plot constitutes 

 an improved yielding strain, which is used for planting larger areas. Tests of 

 this improved seed have shown an increase of 1 1 bushels per acre at Hawkes- 

 bury Agricultural College and 10 bushels per acre at Grafton Experiment 

 Farm, over seed selected from the barn in the ordinary manner practised by 

 most farmers. 



