No. 4.] CORx\ GROWING. 101 



found in corn will serve to reward the produocr for Lis skill 

 and care exercised in its production. 



To what extent should the general farmer become a breeder 

 of corn ? We doubt very much whether it is wise for him to 

 d(» lunch in the way of corn breeding'. What he should do 

 is to make such a careful study of corn and its conditions of 

 growth that he shall be able to select that type of corn which 

 most fully meets his needs. Having found out what this 

 type is, he should then bo able to recognize good seed corn, 

 and to purchase that tyj^e of seed which will most fully meet 

 his requirements. To become an ex})ert corn breeder re- 

 quires a greater amount of care, of skill and of attention to 

 small details than the usual farmer is willing lo give to the 

 subject. If the farmer has a type of corn which seems well 

 adapted to his needs, and he wishes to perpetuate and improve 

 that type of corn, the most practical method of procedure for 

 him lies in the selection of high-producing ears, which shall 

 serve for the production of seed for his general crop. It is 

 impossible to tell with certainty by the looks of an ear, by the 

 perfection of the rows of kernels on the cob, by the space be- 

 tween rows and by the other fancy points which are used in 

 corn judging, which ears possess the highest producing power. 

 If, however, a man is a good judge of corn, he might select 

 a ten-ear sample out of 100 bushels of ears which would win 

 first prize at a corn show, and yet in producing jiowcr these 

 ten ears might be far inferior to other exhibits which might 

 be present. The breeder of dairy cattle has shown ns a way 

 of improving corn, and that is by what is known as the " ad- 

 vanced registry tests." A high price is not paid for the dairy 

 cow because of her color, the length of her tail, the curve of 

 her horns or the size of her milk well, but because of what she 

 can do and what her ancestors have done. In other words, 

 production or performance is the only and true test of actual 

 merit, whether with dairy cows or with corn. 



Prof. C. G. Williams of Ohio Agricultural Experiment 

 Stalidu has worked out th(> most reasonable and practical test 

 of production, and his i)hin briefly is as follows: certain ears 

 of corn will be selected and numbered, one-half of each ear 



