CHAPTER XXXVI 



FACTORS IN CROP PRODUCTION 



THERE are six essential positive factors in the production of 

 agricultural crops, which may be designated by the single words: 



i. Seed. 2. Home. 3. Heat. 



4. Light. 5. Moisture. 6. Food. 



There are many negative factors against which the plant should 

 be protected, such as injury from insects, birds, or other animals, 

 fungous or other diseases or parasites, weeds, and even against an 

 excess of some positive factors, such as moisture. To ignore any 

 important essential factor is certainly to be one-sided or short- 

 sighted. 



Seed. The seed is a factor of much importance. The Illinois 

 Station has produced, as an average yield of three years, 15.6 

 bushels per acre of one variety of wheat and 6.1 bushels of another 

 variety, in careful comparable tests on the same type of soil. The 

 fact that the soil was poor helps to show the character of the wheat, 

 because it requires a good variety to make a fair yield on poor soil. 

 Aside from varietal differences, the vitality or vigor of the special 

 lot of seed is important, and the selection of the best seed from a 

 given lot is certainly good practice. Large seed are, as a rule, better 

 than small seed, even though they may be of the same variety and 

 all of good vitality. Thus, as an average of 7 years, the Ontario 

 Agricultural College produced 62 bushels of oats per acre from large 

 seed and only 47 bushels from small seed, both selected from the 

 same stock each year. The selection and breeding of plants is at 

 least as successful as the breeding of animals. Thus may plants 

 be developed for power to yield or for special purposes. The Illi- 

 nois Station has in ten years' breeding developed two strains of 

 corn one of which now contains 6 per cent more protein than the 

 other, and two other strains one of which contains about three 

 times as much oil as the other, all four strains having been bred 



575 



