METHODS OF LAYING OUT A BBEEDING-PLAT 95 



3. About 1904 to 1906, Professor Williams, of Ohio, 

 applied the " check row " system to the breeding-plat 

 and developed the " ear remnant " plan. The " check 

 row " was a composite planted for every sixth row. This 

 was for the purpose of checking the uniformity of the land, 

 as the breeder might unconsciously select for a breeding- 

 plat a piece of land more fertile at one side than at the 

 other. 



One difficulty found with the ear-to-row method in 

 practice was that the best-yielding row might chance to be 

 between two very poor yielders, so that seed ears saved 

 from this row would be partly crossed with the poor- 

 yielding rows on each side. In order to meet this diffi- 

 culty, the plan was adopted of planting only a part of 

 each ear, sufficient to determine the kind of progeny it 

 would develop, and the remainder of the ear was kept. 

 The next season, remnants of only the best ears would be 

 planted in parallel rows and a part detasseled ; but with 

 the poor-yielding rows eliminated, all the fertilization 

 would come from desirable rows. (See Ohio Agr. Exp. 

 Sta., Circ. 66 (1907) ; Amer. Breeder's Assoc, III: 110.) 



HOW TO CONDUCT A BREEDING-PLAT 



69. As there is considerable inquiry at present regarding 

 methods of corn breeding, it seems best at this time to 

 outline a plan which experience so far seems to recommend. 



Variety to use. — Select some variety that is well 

 adapted to the region and is a good yielder. This is 

 important, as one might spend years in working on a poor 

 variety, and in the end have nothing better than the best 

 variety already existing. It may be well to do some pre- 

 liminary variety testing. 



