THE BREEDING OF CORN 203 



feeders will profit greatly as a result of increasing (he 

 protein content of corn as it will enable them to dispense 

 with the purchase of considerable quantities of more ex- 

 pensive feeding stuffs. 



(2) On the other hand, the manufacturers are increasing 

 their demands for those products derived from the starch 

 of corn such as, alcohol, gum, glucose, dextrine and syrup. 

 As decreasing the protein-content of corn increases the per- 

 centage of starch present, there is a demand for a low- 

 protein corn. 



(3) Corn oil has recently found a wide commercial use 

 and there is now an actual demand for a corn of high-oil 

 content. 



(4) The object of breeding corn for a low-oil content is 

 found in the fact that "in feeding swine, the oil in the 

 corn tends to produce a soft, flabby quality of flesh which 

 is very undesirable, especially for our export trade where 

 the demand of the market is for a hard, firm product." 



HYBRIDIZATION 



249. Objects of hybridization. The readiness with 

 which corn hybridizes and the ease with which the plant 

 is manipulated in artificial crossing have served greatly to 

 stimulate the breeders' interest and effort in this method of 

 corn improvement. In pursuing this method the breeder 

 has in mind two important objects of practical value. 

 These are (1) the recombining of the characters possessed 

 by the parent plants so as to produce a progeny of in- 

 creased value; (2) securing increased vigor and productive- 

 ness thereby augmenting the yield. In addition to these 

 objects of immediate practical value the hybridization of 

 corn yields interesting results of purely scientific value re- 

 lating to the hereditary laws governing plant growth. 



