48 



to take our hats off to Mr. Holbert, because he is doing for agriculture what 

 scientists are trying to do for animals and other things. It ought to be 

 Dr. Holbert, but for short we call him Jimmy Holbert. 



The human race has been doing much with corn, but it is only during 

 the last few years that we are learning how to breed it. I don't presume 

 that there is a grain plant that grows anywhere that has the capacity to 

 perform its functions as well as the corn plant. Many of the other grains 

 are doing better. Wheat is doing better. It is a more efficient plant today 

 than corn, but the possibility of corn exceeds wheat very considerably. Of 

 course, corn is a little disgraced now perhaps because of its price, but don't 

 let that worry you. It won't be long before they will be asking the Ameri- 

 can farmer to get busy and produce corn and other things more abundantly 

 than we ever have before. This breakdown of the world's machinery of 

 banking and transportation will soon be remedied and then they will want 

 our corn and the other products of our soils. 



Q. How many days will it take corn to mature in Lake county? That 

 is about 150 miles north of Champaign county. 



PRESIDENT MANN: So far as the question of latitude is concerned 

 'there would not be much difference, but so far as the temperature changes 

 are concerned there might be considerable, and it would be dependent on 

 those temperature changes. Nobody can tell you in advance what those 

 will be in any one season. 



I say it again it ought to be Dr. Holbert, but we will call him Jimmie 

 for short. 



CORN DISEASES AND CORN BREEDING. 

 (*James R. Holbert.) 



MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: Before we start a brief dis- 

 cussion of some of the genetic phases of this corn work I would like to re- 

 view the other phases that have been mentioned before. 



One of the most important periods in the life of a corn plant is the 

 germination stage, i. e., the first two or three weeks following planting. 

 This is especially true where the corn has grown from infected seed, or seed 

 susceptible to the root and stalk rots. Nearly disease-free and vigorous 

 germinating seed is influenced less by unfavorable soil temperature and 

 soil moisture conditions during this early period of growth, and, as a result, 

 can be planted earlier with safety. 



One of the first symptoms of the corn root and stalk diseases is the 

 reduction in stand and the reduction in vigor. We have just recently sum- 

 marized four years' experiments on this phase of the work and the results 

 will be published in due time in the Journal of Agricultural Research issued 

 by the United States Department of Agriculture. The results reported in 

 this discussion have been secured by investigations conducted cooperatively 

 by the United States Department of Agriculture, Funk Bros. Seed Company, 

 and the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station. 



We have here a group of plants grown from seed planted at the same 

 time in the same soil and photographed at the same time. This one (indicat- 

 ing) is grown from disease-free seed and the others from badly infected 

 seed. Usually such plants die within a few days after emerging. In many 



'Note: (Mr. Holbert used slides exclusively). 



