12 



each contributing to the sum total aimed at, not one to be 

 neglected without certain loss. 



In selecting yellow-eyed beans for seed next year, from the 

 field before pulling, I found stalks carrying but 5 well-filled 

 pods, others 50, and one 94, and 50 was made the minimum. 

 It required a little time to go over the field and do this, but 

 it must pay in increased yield if systematically followed for a 

 few years. An old farmer in Maine built up a remarkable 

 strain of oats by selection from the field, discarding all stools 

 not carrying 13 or more stalks, with large heads and well- 

 shaped kernels. 



Hill selection of potatoes has radically improved production 

 under normal crop conditions, but only through unit breeding 

 do we approach uniformity in type or yield. Everywhere it 

 is the same, the law of breeding applied in the field, as it must 

 be in the tieup or sheepfold. Good crops are grown to-day, 

 but those will not sufiice to-morrow. Every condition facing 

 the grower of 1918 forces consideration of any and all problems 

 promising to insure increase of yield and higher potency in 

 reproduction, as well as value of product. 



It is not alone a question of what we would have; every 

 economic viewpoint forces what we must do if we are to aid 

 in conserving life or energies. Here in the corn field you and 

 I may do our bit, but we cannot do it well unless through 

 careful study of the kernel, we seek for that increase and im- 

 provement possible. 



In Wisconsin, in five years' time, a decided increase in size, 

 shape of ear and yield per acre was obtained by a simple 

 system of seed selection. The variation in yield between ears 

 of corn of the same size and variety is so great as to demand 

 of the grower such comparative tests as will tend to greater 

 uniformity. Ears of the same number of kernels from the 

 same field will vary so widely as to surprise any one who 

 makes the simple test. No man can afford to use seed from 

 the bin, or that saved at husking time; only the ear-to-row 

 test will establish the grower. After several years' hill selection 

 of potatoes, discarding all which failed to give 7 to 9 of mer- 

 chantable size, and a minimum number of small ones, my first 

 test in unit breeding, using seed from the hill-selected stock 



