114 PRACTICAL CORN CULTURE 
Suckering corn and cutting out barren stalks increase 
the yield sometimes as much as forty per cent, depending on 
the number of suckers and the dryness of the season. Our 
greatest gain was the result of cutting out over half the 
stalk growth on a very dry year (1918). The sooner this 
work can be done after the corn tassels, the better. Two men 
in six days can cut out the suckers and barren stalks in the 
average forty-acre field. It is not necessary to have an ‘‘ear 
to the row’’ breeding plot in order to test the results of 
detasseling and suckering. These two experiments can be 
made in any field of corn. 
There are hundreds of things to be determined by corn 
breeding, but the work is so slow that no one individual can 
be expected to establish more than a few facts. Realizing 
that co-operation was necessary in order to make the most 
rapid progress, the Illinois Seed Corn Breeders’ Association 
was organized in 1900. One member of this association, 
Louie H. Smith, assistant chief in plant breeding at the 
University of Illinois, has sueceeded in breeding a high and 
low protein and high and low oil corn. Mr. Smith’s work 
along this line of breeding has extended over fifteen years. 
His results are undoubtedly the most pronounced of any that 
have been attempted in corn breeding. 
The work of producing hybrid seed has been carried on 
by H. J. Sconce, of Sidell, Il. Mr. Leigh F. Maxey, of 
Curran, Ill, has perhaps done more than any other indi- 
vidual in breeding and establishing the type characteristic 
of Leaming corn. 
OBSTACLES TO CONTEND WITH IN BREEDING CoRN 
The corn breeder is often discouraged by adverse condi- 
tions over which he has no control. Cutworms may make 
the stand so uneven that the weight of the corn in the indi- 
