312 MAINE AGRICUIvTURAI, EXPERIME;nT STATION. 191O. 



3. Adjustment of plant. Take only stalks which show the 

 characters which are typical for the variety you are working 

 with. Avoid freaks. 



The field in which the selections are made must obviously be 

 cut by hand, so that the marked plants may be left standing to 

 mature their ears. As to the number of plants to be selected 

 one must be governed by the extent of the proposed seed breed- 

 ing operations. The only point to be observed here is to save 

 about twice as many plants in the field as you expect to want 

 ears for planting the breeding plot the next year. This is to 

 allow for the subsequent ear selection in the winter. 



When the selected plants are well matured (stalks and husks 

 dead and drying) they should be harvested, and the ears should 

 be husked and cared for in the manner described in the next 

 section. 



After the ears from these plants are well dried on the racks 

 (say in December or January) the best of them should be picked 

 out for shelling and planting. In selecting the ears for planting 

 pay attention to the following points. 



1. Fineness of grain and maturity. Take only ears having 

 small, well packed grains in straight rows, and with the grains 

 set firmly on the cob. Select no ears with fewer than 14 rows 

 (better 16). 



2. Sise and shape of ear. Aim to select ears which are of 

 medium size, nearly cylindrical in shape, and with butt and tip 

 fairly well covered with grain. Do not reject an otherwise good 

 ear because the tip is shghtly defective. 



3. Germination. Test the germination of each ear by taking 

 25 kernels from the middle of the ear and either placing them 

 between two layers- of wet blotting paper in a plate, or by plac- 

 ing them in a small box of wet sand. Keep the germination 

 dishes or boxes in a warm room, and well moistened all the time. 

 Reject all ears from which more than 2 kernels out of the 25 fail 

 to germinate within 10 days. Our experience indicates that the 

 germination of corn largely depends upon the way it is cured 

 after harvesting (see below). 



Having selected the ears for planting shell them, keeping the 

 grain from each ear by itself in a paper bag. In shelling reject 

 the kernels at the butt and tip, say for about % inch back from 



