18 



formed by grain dealers that it is very rare that Nebraska 

 or any western corn goes into the market as grade No. 1 . 

 There is a reason somewhere for this, as well as a remedy. 

 The season, climate, and soil in Nebraska will produce No. 

 1 corn if the conditions are made equal. No. 1 seed of a 

 No. 1 type, with No. 1 care and attention, will produce No. 

 1 corn. 



The most successful corn farmers are those who, a.< it 

 were, have made their own varieties. First select of the 

 corn in their own locality the best obtainable type. From 

 this choose annually the best seed ears, until it is bred to a 

 desirable or required standard. It has been demonstrated 

 that too frequent exchange of seed corn over any wide ex- 

 tended region usually works harm. The idea that there 

 must be a mixture of types planted together to secure crosses 

 as a means of improvement is erroneous, for out of the 

 chaos of types resultant from any cross, a pure type must 

 again be selected before you are on the road to success. 

 " Selecting from existing types, and keeping the types pure," 

 should be the watchword of the farmer who aspires to highest 

 success. 



[After the delivery of this paper at Seward, J. H. Pur- 

 dum, one of the most successful corn growers of that county, 

 informed me that four of the principal corn premiums 

 awarded at that fair were from a line of seed he had fol- 

 lowed for thirty years in the states of Illinois and Nebraska.] 



We are prone to talk of the old worn-out soil in the east 

 sometimes derisively. True, that comparatively a few years 

 since the corn grown on the exhausted soils of New York 

 and New England were yielding five to ten bushels to the 

 acre, and those farming seemed content with that. The 

 same soil, well manured, now brings fifty and seventy-five 

 bushels per acre. The farmers of those regions are claim- 

 ing that corn now is their most profitable crop. I have 



