BREEDING AND CURING 



more than twice as much as the combined 

 yields of the two rows on either side of it. 



The Rhode Island station has carried on 

 some valuable experiments in the selection 

 of sweet corn. The author, while a student 

 at that college, had direct charge of these 

 experiments for two years. The experiment 

 was undertaken for the purpose of deter- 

 mining the influence of selection in increas- 

 ing the number of ears to the stalk. Two 

 different lines of work had been followed. 

 In one, the seed was always taken from the 

 lower ear, and from a stalk producing the 

 largest number of ears. In the other, seed 

 was always chosen from the upper ear 

 of stalks producing the largest number of 

 ears. The variety used in this test was 

 Potter's Excelsior. 



Some very startling results were obtained. 

 The results are in harmony with the general 

 law which seems to prevail throughout the 

 plant world, that it is the characteristics 

 of the parent which produce the seed which 

 are likely to be perpetuated, rather than 

 the characteristics of the condition or type 



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