126 FIELD CROPS 



produced. His plan is to start with the ear-to-row test, 

 selecting fifty or one hundred ears as desired. The corre- 

 sponding number of rows is planted in duplicate from these 

 ears, but only half or less than half of the seed from each ear 

 is used; the other half is reserved for future use. The parts 

 of the ears retained are numbered to correspond with the 

 rows planted. The test is conducted in the same manner 

 as the ear-to-row test; that is, the corn is cultivated in the 

 usual way, and the product from each row is weighed to 

 determine those which produced the highest yield. 



The advantage of this method is that after the ear-to-row 

 test has shown which are the high-yielding ears, the best 

 two may be mated by planting the remaining portions of 

 them the following year and a cross between two ears of 

 known high-yielding power thus obtained. For example: 

 If ear No. 25 should yield 80 bushels to the acre and ear No. 

 42, 85 bushels to the acre, while the rest of the ears yielded 

 70 bushels or less, it would be plain that ears No. 25 and 42 

 were the highest-yielding ears in the lot. The second year, 

 the remaining portions of these two ears would be planted in 

 an isolated seed plat, which might be from sixteen to twenty 

 hills square; each alternate row would be planted with seed 

 from ear No. 25, and the rest from ear No. 42. When the 

 corn in this plat begins to tassel, each alternate row, that is, 

 all plants coming from ear No. 42, would be detasseled and 

 the other plants left to produce tassels. It would then be 

 certain that all of the ears on the rows planted to ear No. 42 

 would of necessity be fertilized with pollen coming from the 

 rows planted to ear No. 25. The seed saved from row No. 

 42 could really be called pedigreed corn; that is, one would 

 know absolutely the male parent of the corn and its per- 

 formance record, as well as the mother plant and its per- 

 formance record. 



