222 MAIZE 



CHAP, both tassel and label will disappear in many cases by the 

 breaking off of the tops of the culms. 



At harvest all the marked plants that can be found are 

 cut by hand and removed before the rest of the crop is 

 harvested. The ears are hand-husked and stored until they 

 can receive personal attention. By that time they should 

 have dried out thoroughly, so that reliable comparative tests 

 of weight can be made. 



The ears should be allowed to ripen well on the stalks ; the 

 stalks of the selected plants might be harvested and shocked 

 by themselves to avoid delaying the rest of the harvest. When 

 thoroughly dry, careful selection of the ears must be made, 

 only forty or fifty of those which come closest to the ideal 

 .being retained for the breeding plot. These should be weighed 

 separately, and a record kept of the total weight and of the 

 weight of shelled grain from each. 



179. Seed-room Selection of Ears. — The 500 ears selected 

 in the field are weighed in bulk and then laid out on benches 

 in the seed-room. All small, distorted, or otherwise undesir- 

 able ears are at once discarded, their total weight being 

 taken, as a check. Field selection cannot be so perfect that 

 none but desirable ears will be harvested. In a test case of 

 five breeds selected in the field, the following proportions were 

 retained as suitable for the breeding plot : — 



Yellow Hogan . 

 Yellow Horsetooth 

 Hickory King . 

 Golden King 

 Ladysmith 



Per Cent. 



80 



65 

 61 



59 

 56 



ection of laree ears 



It is doubtful whether in ordinary seL 

 at husking it would be possible to obtain even 10 per cent 

 of desirable ears from an ordinary crop. And then one would 

 not have the advantage of knowing that they came from 

 robust and otherwise desirable parents. 



Of the 300 or so ears left, a more critical study is made. 

 One hundred of the best are reserved for the centre of the 

 breeding plot and the remainder shelled off at once to be used 

 for the end rows. 



After some practice the selection of the best 100 ears can 

 easily be made by eye. When increased yield per acre is the 



