ON CORN BREEDING 127 



even if this is chosen from an ordinary unbred variety. On 

 the other hand, as we shall soon see, great care must be taken 

 in order to make sure that after the first selection all the sires 

 of the selected ears are as superior plants as the chosen indiv- 

 iduals themselves. 



After having discussed the effects of the wind-fertilizing 

 conditions of corn, we have now to consider the influence of 

 the large size of the ears and the great number of their kernels. 

 This character makes the comparing of corn ears far more 

 easy than that of heads of any other cereal. The qualities 

 are more easily appreciated, and the multiplication being so 

 much faster, the importance of the work is greater. At the 

 time of husking, the ears have to be handled singly and this 

 will favor their inspection and study. Seed corn has to be as 

 uniform as possible, and the easy inspection of the ears will 

 lead to the elimination of all those ears which do not comply 

 with this condition, even in a pure race. 



We may assume that pure races of corn, derived each from 

 a single purely fertilized ear, will show some degree of varia- 

 bility, and that this multiformity will strike us as more im- 

 portant than in the case of smaller cereals. With the same 

 degree of variability the smaller ears of wheat, with their mi- 

 nute differentiating marks, will seem to be more uniform than 

 a strain of corn, in which the differences are so much more 

 visible to the eye. 



It is the ordinary or fluctuating variability with which 

 we have here to deal. It embraces the effects of environmen- 

 tal conditions on the plants, in the growing state as well as 

 during the ripening of the germ of the seed. In the more 

 striking cases these effects are well appreciated even by ordi- 

 nary farmers, and some instances may be adduced: Good 

 qualities may be due to accidental advantages, caused by 

 deficiencies in the neighboring plants. Whenever the neigh- 

 boring seeds fail to germinate, or when by some accident the 



