26 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



ear from a crib may have been good because the stalk 

 grew under especially favorable conditions. It may have 

 grown alone, when most of the plants grew in hills, or it 

 may have grown on richer soil. 



With any of these methods of selection, we know only 

 half the parentage. The pollen to fertilize the good ear 

 may have come from stalks with very poor ears. It is 

 necessary, therefore, to test the yielding power. 



The selected ears should be kept in a dry, moderately 

 warm place during the winter, as freezing hurts the embryos 

 when they are moist (page 54). In the spring, a germina- 

 tion test is made as a further selection (page 48). Discard 

 all ears that do not germinate all of the six kernels tested; 

 also discard those that produce weak sprouts. 



Suppose that twenty-five of the best ears, all of per- 

 fect germination, are now taken for an ear-row test, the 

 remaining seed being used for regular field planting. 

 Shell each of the twenty-five ears into a paper bag bear- 

 ing the number of the ear. Select a place in the regular 

 cornfield large enough for fifty hills square. The soil 

 should be uniform and of average fertility. Plant rows 

 1 and 26 from ear 1; rows 2 and 27 from ear 2; rows 3 

 and 28 from ear 3, etc. This gives two trials of each 

 ear, so that soil differences will be allowed for. Half of 

 the seed of each ear is saved for next year's planting. 



After the corn is up, it is a good practice to thin it to a 

 uniform number of stalks per row. The corn is cultivated 

 the same as the regular field. In the fall, husk each row 

 separately and measure the yield. 



Such a test, conducted in 1907 by Yale Deuel, a farmer 

 living at Churchill, N. Y., gave the following yields: (The 



