16 COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE AND DAIRYING 
must detassel the plants of the whole of that row before they flower, and so prevent 
cross-pollination. The seed ears from the row that shows the highest yield and quality 
are taken for the 25 rows or more of next year’s breeding plot; and that plan is kept up 
continuously. The few great corn growers in the United States who have had their 
names attached to special varieties, have been quietly doing similar work for years, 
and now the system of selection is being organized for general application. There is a 
limitation to the extent of the selection of rows. Any one with a breeding plot is not 
allowed to take from more than 40 per cent of the rows for seed. The limit is 40 per 
cent, evidently because there is a tendency downwards. 
By Mr. McGowan: 
Q. Are they doing anything of this at the experimental farm? 
A. I think they began it there two years ago. 
Another matter of very deep interest to me and also to the country I think, are 
the facts brought to light by an effort begun at the experiment station in Illinois some 
six years ago to improve the quality of Indian corn in this way. They had analyses 
made of the very best corn they could find for a high percentage of protein. They 
fuund the good corn contained about 9 per cent of protein. Wheat contains from 12 
to 13 per cent of protein. Then they planted rows from the ears that had the highest 
percentage of protein, and last autumn they had some corn growing in a plot that 
showed an average of over 15 per cent of protein, or 2 per cent higher than that of wheat. 
That is an amazing achievement for this continent; for if you have Indian corn 
richer in protein than wheat, what an immense benefit and advantage it will be in the 
feeding of cattle, the production of bacon and even in the nourishment of human be- 
ings from the cereal direct. 
SELECTION OF SEED AS APPLIED TO CEREAL CROPS. 
Let me now come to another part of this subject, one that we have been working 
out in Canada for the past four years. I think we are how ready for a great advance 
in it. In 1899 I said in my evidence before this Committee: 
‘The safe practice for the farmers is to select large and heavy seed from any 
strain which is of good quality for the market, and which has been productive in their 
locality. A still greater improvement than that is practicable. The selection of seeds 
from the largest, earliest, most vigorous plants as they grow would give the very best 
seeds from that strain or variety. The power to overcome obstacles, which is in evi- 
dence in the largest and most vigorous plants, is worth seeking in the seeds from such 
plants. 
‘One day’s work of selection when the crop is ripe would yield the farmer enough 
heads from the best plants for two bushels of cleaned seed. That should be cleaned 
thoroughly, and the small light seeds taken out by a stiff fanning and sieving. These 
two bushels (more or less) of selected seed should be sown on a plot of well prepared 
fertile land. The crop from that will furnish seed for the general crop of the farm 
of that class of grain. It is important that that plot should be in the best possible 
condition for crop growing. The productive qualities of those selected seeds are im- 
proved by being grown on land which bears large erops. Before the crop from the 
seed grain plot is harvested, a selection of the heads from the most productive and 
vigorous plants‘should again be made. These furnish the seed for the seed grain plot 
the succeeding year. The seed grain plot itself should be one on which a well manured 
root or green crop or a clover crop was grown the previous year. In a few years a 
farmer could grade up the strain of seed on his farm to yield from 10 to 20 per cent 
more per acre. Even if he does not follow that systematic selection, if he sows only 
heavy, plump seeds, from the largest yielding crop he can find in his locality, he will 
derive very great benefit.’ 
