32 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



variety from north or south of the locality. Therefore get the best corn in 

 your neighborhood, and plant a patch especially for seed. Give it the best of 

 care in the preparation of the soil, the manuring and the cultivation, for a 

 complete development is what we want first. Do not crowd a lot of plants 

 in one hill, but plant singly in the rows. Now watch the corn as the tassels 

 first show, and go through it and cut out every tassel before it ripens, from 

 every hill that does not promise to make an ear; for these barren stalks are 

 strong males and their pollen will have a deleterious influence on the plants 

 around them. Then, as the crop matures, mark the stalks that come nearest 

 to the type of plant you are after. In the North, have an eye to the earliness of 

 the plant as well as the other characteristics. In the South we need to breed 

 towards a shorter and more sturdy plant, and to get away from the long- 

 legged style so common, in which the ears are almost out of reach and are 

 borne singly on the stalks. Select for productiveness, by marking only those 

 with two or more ears. In the South, select for the seed ear the lowest one on 

 the stalk, and this will generally be the smallest one, but it will inherit a 

 tendency to form another ear above it, and we need this as well as the tendency 

 to grow nearer the ground. In the North it may be best to save both ears. 



From the corn thus saved plant not only your entire field, but another 

 seed patch, and on this seed patch, practice the same plan of selection, always 

 keeping- in. mind the ideal plant you wish to establish. As the number of ears 

 on the plant increase, and the productiveness of the variety is established, we 

 would select for the general character of the plant year after year. The 

 southern corn has become long-legged from the constant practice of selecting 

 the largest ears in the crib. These large ears are commonly the only ones on 

 the stalk, are usually borne high above the ground, may have been surrounded 

 in the field by a multitude of barren and inferior stalks, and, as it is the 

 pollen around the plant, rather than its own, which sets the grains, the plant- 

 ing of the big ear will often lead to disappointment. If every farmer paid 

 the proper attention to the selection of his seed corn, the crop all over the 

 country would be immensely increased without any additional acreage. 



The cotton farmer in like manner should have his seed patch and select 

 for the ideal cotton plant, and not merely for big bolls ; and in all our annual 

 crops plant breeding in an intelligent manner would greatly increase the 

 average yield. But as the majority of farmers will not undertake this work, 

 it leaves a wide field for intelligent effort for those who do, for they will 

 be able to get a greatly increased price for their well bred seed from those who 

 are not disposed to take the trouble. Not long since I had a letter from a 

 North Carolina farmer saying that he had been practicing the method of 

 saving seed corn which I had advised, and that his crop had increased in pro- 



