92 FIELD CROP PRODUCTION 



is simply a plot to increase the supply of seed in order to 

 plant an entire field the next year. Some of the best ears 

 from the breeding plot and also from the multiplying 

 plot should be taken back to the ear-to-row test each 

 year. This method gives an opportunity for comparison 

 of the improved strain with the general crop. 



71. Corn judging. — Within the past few years corn 

 shows have become quite common throughout the corn 

 growing sections of the country. They have done and are 

 doing a great service in creating a wider interest in the 

 study of corn growing, and in showing the possibilities 

 of improving the quality of the crop. The general plan 

 of conducting the contest has much to do with the bene- 

 fits to be derived from the show. Too frequently, per- 

 haps, the show evolves into a contest to determine which 

 exhibitor has best solved the problem of the proper rate 

 of planting to grow large ears, and of his ability to select 

 a good show sample. Quite frequently it is said at a show 

 by a defeated contestant, that, although he did not win 

 the prize, he has the consolation of knowing that he 

 produces more corn of a better quality per acre than does 

 the exhibitor who carries off the prize. This, as has been 

 pointed out in the paragraph qn the rate of planting, is 

 quite frequently clue to the fact that many exhibitors have 

 learned that corn when planted thinly produces a higher 

 percentage of large, fine looking ears, than when planted 

 at the normal rate, or at a rate that would produce a 

 higher yield per acre. Many seedsmen plant thinly 

 in order to grow a greater number of large, well-propor- 

 tioned seed ears per acre. This practice, of course, as 

 shown in the discussion of field selection, is not to be 

 recommended, since the excellence of such ears is due to 

 environment and not to heredity. The greatest service 



