226 



Copy of Chart Displayed inIIllustration of Making Corn Make 

 Good. — Continued. 



Average Apparent Produced Pounds 



Ear Excellence Per Cent Per Stalk 



No. 16 92 .600 



" 17 92 .643 



"18 91 .620 



"19 89 .567 



"20 88 .668 



"21 86 .500 



"22 86 .443 



"23 84 .724 



"24 83 .558 



" 25* .... 



* Ear-Row No. 25 thrown out because of extremely poor stand. 



You will notice that, following the advice of Dean Hunt, I renum- 

 bered my ears after scoring them, making my best apparent ear No. 13, 

 my next best No. 15 and No. 12, and so on, the two lowest scoring ears 

 being No. 1 and No. 25. This arrangement does not seem to have im- 

 pressed itself much upon the rank of performance. For instance, you 

 will notice that No. 24, the worst scoring ear of the bunch, outyielded No. 

 13, the best. 



This time the extremes come a trifle closer together. The best. No. 

 6, produced something over eight-tenths of a pound of corn and cob per 

 stalk. The worst. No. 2, produced but little over two-tenths of a pound. 

 Still a difference due to heredity of almost four hundred per cent. 



The result is, as you see, given in fractional, or rather decimal pounds. 

 The extreme left-hand column represents tenth-pounds, the middle hun- 

 dredth-pounds and the one on the right thousandth-pounds. You may 

 imagine that this is splitting hairs, but remember this is per stalk, and a 

 cornfield is a vast forest of such stalks. 



I figure that, presuming you were to plant an acre from identical 

 ears, a difference of one figure in the right-hand column means a difference 

 of ten dollars' worth of corn in the resulting crop; that a difference of one 

 unit in the middle column means a gain or loss of a dollar on the acre; and 

 that a difference of one in the third column means ten cents, lost or gained. 



Take, for instance, ears Nos. 21 and 15. Both produced an even 

 half-pound per stalk. Ear No. 16, however, which looked exactly like the 

 rest, produced six-tenths of a pound. That extra tenth-pound per plant 

 would mean that a man would make ten dollars an acre by planting such 

 as it, rather than such as Nos. 15 and 21, or their inferiors. And if he had 

 planted all such as these (pointing to No. 9 yielding .700) he would have 

 gained twenty dollars per acre, and this (No. 6) would have added almost 

 twenty dollars more to his crop income. 



It is perfectly possible to plant only such ears as this No. 6, and 

 profit thereby. It is also perfectly possible for you to drift along as you 

 are now doing, planting 24's along with your 17's, just as they come, and 

 losing hard, cold cash thereby. 



