BREEDING AND SELECTION 57 



to the breeder's influence, so that by continuous 

 selecting a uniform, improved type may be im- 

 pressed on the variety for the benefit of the grower. 

 This benefit is out of all proportion to the increased 

 cost of seed for improved strains. In buying an ear of 

 corn, the growers get a thousand individuals capable 

 of reproducing themselves in one year. The live stock 

 breeder, on the other hand, pays a great amount of 

 money for one individual which requires a mate. 



From the nature of past conditions little attempt 

 was made to systematically improve corn. The corn 

 plant was but little understood. In fact, the whole 

 field of corn development is practically unexplored. 

 Enough is known, however, to show the boundless 

 possibilities and in a general way to direct the work of 

 the breeders to some definite end. Following will be 

 given an outline of the methods now in use. These are 

 the result of the experience of the past and the study 

 of the present. 



APPROVED METHODS OBSERVED IN BREEDING 



There are two grades of seed com — the highly- 

 bred seed and the stock seed. The highly-bred seed 

 can never exist in large quantities and will conse- 

 quently never enter into the commercial transactions 

 of the corn breeder to any great extent. 



By highly-bred seed is meant seed that is the very 

 highest representatives of the improved types. In 

 other words, those ears which as nearly as possible 

 represent the ideal ear. As every ear is different from 

 every other ear, there can never be a large number of 

 such ears. However, this very fact of wide variation 

 makes the improvement of varieties possible. If there 

 was no variation from which selection could be made, 

 there could be no improvement. It is by selecting 

 those ears which vary in the direction desired and dis- 



