All those ears whose kernels are slightly shrunken at or near the tip 



... J-"U ~. 



and show the white, starchy appearance running down over the kernel should 

 be discarded. 



UNIFORMITY OF EARS AND KERNELS. 



The ten ears of the exhibit should be as nearly the same size and shape 

 and the kernels should be as nearly of the same size and shape as it is 

 possible to get them. I would rather have a sample made up of ears whose 

 kernels are of the same size and shape but with the ears somewhat irregular 

 than to have a sample whose ears are of the same size and shape but with 

 kernels of varying sizes and shapes. I would rather have the ears and 

 kernels both somewhat uneven in size and shape and have all heavy solid 

 ears with perfectly developed kernels than to have them of just the same 

 size and' shape with some light or poorly developed kernels among them. 



MINOR CHARACTERISTICS. 



Of course, one should pay some attention to having tips of ears fairly 

 well covered, rows of kernels straight, and a uniform color running through 

 the ears of the exhibit, but these things are of minor importance and should 

 be looked at only after the above characteristics are carefully considered. 



I have come to feel that an old blind man in eastern Iowa was right 

 in what he told me about sixteen years ago when I was judging corn in a 

 corn show there. I had found I was giving a prize to a blind man. I asked 

 him how it happened that he could grow such corn even though he was 

 blind. He went over to the table where the corn was and I remember so 

 well how he picked up those ears, tossed them from one hand to the other, 

 felt them, twisted them, and he said, "Well, Mr. Mosher, I have learned 

 through these years that the most important thing is not what you see 

 about the corn, but it is to get the ears that are heavy and solid." Coming 

 from a blind man, the idea was impressed very strongly on my mind, and 

 I have been noticing it ever since, and that is the first test that I put the 

 corn through. 



Q. Do you judge of the weights in a comparative way? 



Mr. MOSHER: It is the comparative weight, the weight of the ear for 

 its size. 



Q. In regard to this seed which received the prize in the state of Iowa, 

 isn't there a possibility that it was of rough type and the farmers' seed of 

 a medium type? I mean whether that hasn't some bearing on the difference 

 in yield. 



Mr. MOSHER: You think it was not necessarily because the corn had 

 been moved from one place to another but becaues the really best corn had 

 not been winning the prizes? Very likely there is something to that, yes, sir, 

 but how much of it was that and how much of it was a matter of moving 

 the corn that should not be moved I don't know. 



PRESIDENT MANN: The inference of your question then is the high- 

 est winning corn did not go to the show. 



Q. That is it. 



Mr. MOSHER: Possibly this will help to answer your question. In this 

 test in Woodford County which we carried on just as carefully as we knew 

 how, we had in that test men who had been winning in our state and 

 national corn shows, we had 1 in that test nearly all of the men who had 

 been showing corn and winning in the county shows, and of the ten out- 

 standingly, high-yielding, good quality lots of corn not a single one had ever 

 won a prize even in the county show. The high-yielding corn was all from 

 men who had been working quietly along at home, along their own ideas, 

 without having shown their corn at the corn shows. 



