Ill 



ON CORN BREEDING 



In Europe the smaller cereals constitute the prevailing 

 crops, but in the United States of America, corn is king, 

 as the phrase goes. 



Yearly about 2500 million bushels of Indian corn, with 

 a value of $1,000,000,000, are produced in this country, 

 constituting almost eighty per cent of the world's total crop. 

 Of this more than 1500 million bushels are fed to cattle and 

 other meat-producing animals, the remainder being partly 

 exported and partly used for different industrial purposes. 

 The total number of beef cattle in the United States was 

 officially estimated in 1904 at 43,500,000, with a total value 

 of $660,000,000. 



Over a hundred different commercial products and about 

 fifty kinds of food are derived from corn and its various 

 constituents, the glucose factories alone consuming over 

 50,000,000 bushels of corn. 



There can be no doubt that corn is the most valuable 

 crop in the United States. Cotton, of course, bears the 

 palm as a money crop, but corn is the main supply of food, 

 directly as well as under the form of meat. No single cereal 

 is of the same high importance, and the agriculture of the 

 principal states of the Middle West is almost wholly depen- 

 dent upon the raising of corn. . 



Illinois stands first, but Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Ne- 

 braska, and some others deserve as well their name of the 

 corn states. In Indiana the average crop is 33 busnels per 

 acre, a bushel containing in round numbers 100 ears and 

 commonly shelling out 56 pounds. 



On account of this pre-eminent importance, all questions 

 concerning the possible means of increasing the crop of com 



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