No. 4. ] FIELD CKOPS . 319 



length. The ears were only about two inches long, and had 

 but four rows of pointed white kernels. Professor Bailey 

 has crossed this species with a Japanese corn, and from one 

 of the hybrid seeds raised thirty-four ears. Professor 

 Bailey thinks this corn is not a distinct species, but either 

 the original or very near the original form of Zea urn;/*. 



Production. 



Professor Hunt of the Ohio Agricultural College states 

 that the total production of corn in the entire world is prob- 

 ably about 3, 000, 000, 000 bushels, or about one and one- 

 half times as much as of wheat. Of this enormous total 

 the American continent produces from three-fourths to four- 

 fifths. Within a decade the United States has several times 

 produced more than 2,000,000,000 bushels, and this year 

 has probably produced nearly 2,500,000,000 bushels, or 

 probably twice as great a quantity as all the rest of the 

 world taken together. Our average yield per acre for the 

 entire country is now about 24 bushels. Ten years ago 

 it was about 27 bushels. Massachusetts averages about 

 40 bushels per acre. But little of the corn raised in the 

 United States is exported, seldom more than live per cent. 

 Our consumption averages .about 28 bushels per individual 

 of our population. This is the heaviest rate of consump- 

 tion of any cereal by any people in the world. It is nearly 

 twice as great as the consumption of all the cereals in 

 Europe. 



We probably produce annually rather over 50,000,000 

 tons of corn stover, which is very largely wasted. The 

 production in this State is probably 81,000 tons, of which I 

 estimate that fully one-half is wasted, involving a money 

 loss of about $2 1."), 000. This loss may be almost entirely 

 avoided by better methods of handling the corn crop. 

 These methods will he described later. 



Varieties. 



It is a well-known fact that there is an enormous number 

 of varieties of corn. Into the question of the relative merits 

 of these varieties 1 cannot go. You are aware that Hint 



