280 MAINE) AGRICULTURAI, EXPe;RIMENT STATION. I91O. 



20-24, 1909. On August 29, 1909, Mr. Heath and one of the 

 writers went through his two acres of corn in the attempt to 

 find some ears suitable for boihng. After considerable search- 

 ing a few ears were found but even these were already past the 

 proper stage for eating. Owing to the location of the field on 

 the low land along the Sandy river this corn was not injured 

 by the severe frost of August 31, 1909. The corn was har- 

 vested for seed on September 15 and 16, 1909. It was thor- 

 oughly ripe at that time. 



In connection with the farm distribution test (cf. pp. 284-292) 

 of the Type I seed in 1909 the writers had an opportunity to see 

 a great deal of the sweet corn grown in the State in that season. 

 No corn was found which was as early as our piece at Farm- 

 ington. Only a few pieces were seen which approached our 

 corn in earliness. The best of these were in the vicinity of 

 Rumford Center. This corn was about a week later than the 

 Farmington field. On inquiry into the history of this corn it 

 was found that the seed had been saved and selected for earli- 

 ness for many years by Messrs. J. H. and F. D. Martin of R.um- 

 ford Point. Further, during this time they had grown this 

 corn on the same farm and under the same conditions so that it 

 was completely adjusted to its immediate local environment. 



Some idea of the earliness of the Farmington corn in 1909 as 

 compared with other corn in the State may be gained from the 

 statement that so far as the writers have been able to ascertain 

 no corn was canned in the State before September 10, 1909. It 

 seems .safe to say that our corn was at least two weeks earlier 

 than the earliest corn put up by the packers. It is worth point- 

 ing out that if all the corn in the State could have been as far 

 along as the Farmington field it would have been safely out of 

 the way before the killing frost of August 31, 1909, This frost 

 did thousands of dollars worth of damage to the corn crop of 

 the State. 



The second point in which an improvement concurrent with 

 the selection was noticeable in the 1909 corn was in regard to 

 the conformation of the ear. Unfortunately it was not possible 

 under the conditions of the work to take detailed data on this 

 point in 1909, but there is no doubt that the proportion of good 

 and fine quality seed ears was considerably higher in 1909 than in 



