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A proper environment is only half of farming. High heredity is the 

 other half. You control environment to your profit. You can likewise 

 control heredity. It is no easy job. But it is a job well worth while and 

 something which you will all come to sooner or later. The grab-bag method 

 of selecting seed must die because it is expensive and foolish. And if you 

 are wise you will start now to prepare for your cornfields of 1914, '15 and 

 '16. 



[Abram Pearce was next introduced for a brief talk on ''Winning the 

 Corn Cup." He described his methods of securing strong seed, and the 

 methods which he followed in the fertilization, cultivation, and harvesting 

 of the acre of corn which produced the highest yield at the lowest cost of 

 any in Baltimore County, and so won for him the silver loving cup offered 

 through the Baltimore County Association of Boys' Com Clubs. 



As the President of the County Association, he was further able to 

 speak interestingly of the unique system of boys' club work, carried on 

 entirely by the boys themselves, and through which the Agricultural 

 High School has been able to make its influence strongly felt at points far 

 removed from the Sparks community. Prolonged applause marked the 

 close of his talk.] 



Russell R. Lord: Now comes the demonstrational work. In ex- 

 periments of his kind, about a million things can happen that you never 

 expected to happen. Perhaps some of these things have already hap- 

 pened, and if some of the stunts don't quite work out, we hope that you 

 will laugh with us and proceed happily on to the next. However, every- 

 thing looks all right and we are ready to start it off. Lee Parry will tell 

 you some things you don't know about a generation of corn while Pearce 

 and I will work the demonstrational end. This is Lee Parry. 



Lee Parry: As you have already heard, the ordinary generation 

 of corn starts with the planting of the seed in the spring. A successful 

 generation, however, should start several seasons back of that in careful 

 selection and painstaking upbuilding of a good strain of seed of a variety 

 ideally adapted to the personal need and environment. Assuming that 

 this has been done— which is quite a bit easier than doing it — let us say 

 that we now have a bunch of ears of perfect pedigree from which we desire 

 to select the most promising individuals for perpetuation. I have here [indi- 

 cating a display of about a bushel of ears of all types and sizes] a bunch of 

 average Boone County White ears picked haphazard from a corn-crib. 

 Which is the best? Which is the worst? Why? To answer these ques- 

 tions we must have a definite and concise idea of what an ideal ear of White 

 Dent corn looks like. While I am describing this ideal ear, the other boys 

 will judge this bunch of ears and pick out the best. 



A good ear of corn should be of goodly length, cylindrical in profile, 

 well rounded at butt and tip and tapering gently throughout its length. 



