CHAPTER X 
THE ‘“‘EAR TO THE ROW”’ BREEDING PLOT 
Corn has improved greatly in type and yielding qualities 
in the last twenty years. From a long, slender ear on a 
tall, heavy stalk, corn has been bred to a cylindrical ear 
with deep grains, showing a percentage of grain to ear of 
between eighty-five and ninety. 
This improvement in type and yielding qualities has been 
due to two things: First, the breeding plot; secondly, field 
selection. Improvements through the breeding plot are ac- 
complished largely in a mechanical way,—by the use of scales. 
Field selection is done by the picker ever keeping before him 
the ideal that he is striving to obtain. 
To make the greatest progress in corn improvement, it is 
necessary to combine breeding plot and field selection. 
On the following pages we will give as well as we can 
our method of conducting an ‘‘ear to the row”’’ breeding plot. 
PLANTING A CoRN BREEDING PLOT 
In starting a breeding plot, one hundred of the most 
desirable ears are chosen. The ears of course should be well 
matured and sound and the type as good as can be obtained, 
since a mistake in the first selection may set the breeder back 
a year or two. It is better to make a record of the measure- 
ments of ears. (Illinois farmers can obtain blank registers 
by applying to L. H. Smith, of the University of Illinois.) 
Tf a breeding plot has been conducted before, ears, of course, 
should be selected from the highest yielding rows of the pre- 
vious year’s plot. 
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