CORN BREEDING 125 



of course, by the number of kernels on the ears to be tested. 

 A fair-sized ear will plant a row from 40 to 50 rods long. 

 Many corn breeders use shorter rows and plant duplicate 

 rows from each ear, to serve as an additional check in 

 determining the best. At harvest time, the product of each 

 ear is carefully weighed and the high-yielding and low-yield- 

 ing ears thus discovered. The corn from the low-yielding 

 rows is discarded, and only seed from the high-yielding rows 

 is saved for future planting. 



159. Difficulties of the Ear-to-Row Method. This 

 method of corn breeding has been followed by many breeders 

 and has given some gratifying results. The chief objection 

 to it comes from the fact that the high-yielding rows of corn 

 have been fertilized with pollen from all of the rows, so that 

 the individual kernels on the selected ears, while they are 

 known to come from a mother plant of high yielding power, 

 are from an unknown male parent, and it is quite possible 

 that many of the kernels in the ears selected from the high- 

 est-yielding row will have been fertilized by pollen from low- 

 yielding rows. On this account, this method of breeding 

 corn has resulted in a great many disappointments. 



160. Pedigreed Varieties. In order that a plant or an 

 animal may be pedigreed, its ancestors on both sides must 

 be known. For a pedigree to be of material value, the 

 performance records of its parents must likewise be known. 

 It is quite evident that it would be impossible to produce a 

 pedigreed variety of corn by the ear-to-row method of breed- 

 ing outlined in the preceding paragraphs. While the mother 

 plant and the record of the mother plant for generations 

 might be known, the male plant is absolutely unknown. 



Professor C. G. Williams of the Ohio Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station was one of the first men, if not the first, to 

 conceive a plan by which really pedigreed corn might be 



