132 PLANT-BREEDING 



The Illinois Seed Corn Breeders Association was organized 

 in igoo, and began its work in 1901. Soon afterward, 

 similar associations were organized in other corn-breeding 

 states, and the systematic production of selected seed is 

 rapidly gaining sympathy among the farmers throughout the 

 United States. In the corn states it is, of course, the dent 

 corn with its numerous varieties which must be ameliorated, 

 but in Connecticut, Maine, New York, and other eastern 

 states the flint corns and the sweet corns are equally in 

 need of improvement. Farmers are now almost everywhere 

 wilHng to pay higher prices for pedigreed seed-corn, although 

 these commonly average double the value of ordinary seed. 

 Corn breeding has become a prominent part of the work of 

 many of the agricultural experiment stations, as well as a 

 special business for some large firms. Prof. P. G. Holdcn, 

 of the Iowa State College of Agriculture, at Ames, Iowa, 

 has brought the work of that station to the front rank, and 

 the Funk Brothers Seed Company, at Blocmington, 111., 

 are pushing the selection of corn as a business enterprise to 

 its highest possible development. 



As a rule seed-corn has to be purchased on the cob, 

 although the price is often nearly double that of shelled seed- 

 corn. In lUinois the price of a bushel, for the best varie- 

 ties, is in the first case $3 (70 pounds of ears), and in the 

 other case $2 (56 pounds of shelled corn per bushel). 

 The quahty of the individual ears is a criterion of the choice 

 condition of the crop and a guarantee for the next generation, 

 but the purity of shelled corn can never be wholly rehed 

 upon. No seed should be imported from distant locahties, 

 except for the purpose of experimental trials. Ordinary 

 unbred varieties, which consist of mixtures of minor types, 

 will, as a rule, change during the first years after importa- 

 tion, some of the constituents gaining and others losing in 

 their proportionate part of the harvest. Of course, such 



