112 



FIELD CROPS 



gathered and placed under cover to dry out, where it will 

 not be affected by the weather, the better it will be for seed 

 purposes. In the North, it is extremely important that corn 

 be selected early enough in the fall to allow ample time for it 

 to become dry before freezing weather. This usually means 



that it is necessary to 

 select corn just as soon 

 as it is well ripened. 



Another important 

 factor in favor of early 

 selection, especially in 

 the North, is that one 

 may choose the ears 

 from plants that have 

 a tendency to ripen 

 early. Almost univer- 

 sally, some ears and 

 plants mature from a 

 few days to two or 

 three weeks earlier 

 than some of the other 

 ears and plants. If the 

 seed is selected from 

 these plants, there is a 

 tendency to fix the 

 character of early 



maturity. If the corn is not selected until all the plants 

 are mature or until they have all been killed by frost, it 

 is not possible to tell the early-maturing ears from those 

 that matured later. If selection is deferred and the season 

 happened to be favorable, so that the corn continued to 

 grow for a week or more after the date of the first killing 

 frost, ears might be selected that matured eight or ten days 



Fig. 35. The kind of corn which should not 

 be used for seed. 



