CULTIVATION OF CORN. 243 



(lifTcrcnt soedsmcn under the name of King Philip corn ! 

 With this cxphmation, you will sec the difficulty of recom- 

 mending any seed-corn. When you buy that seed-corn, the 

 probability is you will not get, under the same name, the 

 kind which I recommend under that name. So that one of 

 the most important things in agricultural experiments is in 

 describing and localizing the varieties of our farm seeds, 

 in order to know whether we buy what we think we have 

 bought, and in order that seedsmen can all supply the same 

 articles under the same name. 



Now, you will see the bearing of these remarks upon the 

 question which ears shall be selected for seed. If you select 

 the earliest ripening ears from one variety of corn you may 

 make a gain and you may not. It is just about an equal 

 chance whether you will gain or lose, because the question 

 is complicated by the question of what variety you select 

 the ears from, and by the conditions under which it is grown. 



Now, I am coming to a discovery. The corn plant is a 

 very curious plant. It has certain agricultural species, — I 

 don't mean botanical species, — which can be described and 

 distinguished, which we recognize as the Dents, the Flints, 

 sweets, softs, and the pops. Any farmer can tell the differ- 

 ence between those. Now, Avhen you bring these varieties 

 together, 3^ou will find that they do not equally cross-fertil- 

 ize with each, other as the public have always imagined they 

 did. That is, it is very difficult to cross the Flint and the 

 Dent. If 3'ou undertake to cross the Flint with sweet corn, 

 you will find that the sweet corn will receive the pollen of 

 the Flint corn and show Flint kernels growing upon the ear, 

 but in no attempt which we have yet made have wo suc- 

 ceeded in growing sweet corn upon the Flint corn ; the 

 interchange is all one way. I have grown a thoroughl)rcd 

 seed-corn for three years in succession, alongside of one 

 hundred and thirty-five varieties this year and a hundieil and 

 twenty varieties last year, and I have not as yet been able 

 to find one single clear instance of cross-fertilization on this 

 seed-corn from these many varieties surrounding it. In 

 order to show 3'ou the carefulness of ni}' experiment, I will 

 say that I handled many hundreds of ears, and examined 

 each ear by itself, in order to justify this statement, which 



