74 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the farmer any peculiar or unusual fticulty ; it is not the 

 ■exclusive privilege of genius or the monopoly of gifted 

 minds, but depends for success upon the phiiner and more 

 •useful qualities of judgment, patience and careful attention." 

 The farmer should have a clear conception of the qualities 

 the new corn should possess, and select the two sorts having 

 these characteristics predominating. Care must be taken 

 that the planting is so timed that the tassels and silk threads 

 shall appear simultaneously, or else no hybrid will be pro- 

 duced. 



Enfield, in his work on Indian corn, remarks under this 

 head : " The surest mode of reachinii; the his^hest results in 

 hybridizing, though it would require more time, would be as 

 follows : After carefully discriminating the several sorts to 

 be used, let the cultivator improve each of these separately 

 through a series of selections, and then, by crossing, let him 

 propagate the intended sort from the more perfect tj-pes thus 

 obtained. The new variety resulting from this mode of pro- 

 ceeding would afterwards be kept pure and still further 

 improved by continuing the same process of selection. It 

 would not perhaps be easy to foretell the extraordinary 

 results that might, and probably will, be reached in thus 

 improving the varieties of Indian corn by the joint aid of 

 careful si-lection, judicious crossing and thorough cultiva- 

 tion." The person who is the fortunate originator of a 

 variety of corn that is superior to any now in use, and 

 thereby '< makes two ears to grow upon a spot of ground 

 where only one grew before, will deserve better of mankind 

 iind do more essential service to his country than the whole 

 race of politicians put together." 



A noted agricultural writer has said : — 



" I believe it has been demonstrated that the character of 

 the stalk, branches and leaves is derived from the male or 

 sire's side of the house ; and the style of the kernel, shape, 

 color, texture, amount of starch, sugar and oil, gluten, 

 flintiness, etc., come from the dam's side. Hence, if we 

 want two to six ears on one stalk we should allow only those 

 tassels to stand in our breeding acre which grow upon stalks 

 on which several good ears are set. Then, with a little 

 pains, we can fertilize the ears of the best stalks with the 



