SUMMARY 
1. One of the outstanding considerations developed by 
these experiments concerning seed corn is the importance of 
adaptation. It is possible to move corn which is well adapted in 
one section of this State to another within the State where it 
will prove an almost complete failure. The degree of adapta- 
tion is dependent upon the degree of equilibrium between the 
plant requirements and its environmental growth conditions. 
The chief conflicting factors in this adjustment are: (1) Too 
late plant maturity for the length and character of the growing 
season; (2) too large inherent vegetative development with its 
proportional demand upon soil moisture, under conditions of 
moisture shortage; (3) too early maturity for the length of 
growing season available, which limits unnecessarily the length 
of time during which the plant may elaborate and accumulate 
organic materials; and (4) too small inherent vegetative de- 
velopment with its unnecessary physical limitation upon syn- 
thetic and accumulative processes. 
Surveys of corn production in this State suggest that, in 
the main, corn types are being grown which meet the local en- 
vironmental conditions fairly well. Marked cases of inadapta- 
tion are the exception. It may be readily observed that there is 
a gradual transition in the vegetative and associated ear charac- 
teristics of corn which is parallel with the transition in the 
climatic values from one region to another. Such transition is 
found both within standard varieties and between different 
varieties. There is an apparent tendency among growers to 
select corn types which are slightly too late maturing to produce 
the best results under their environment. 
The corn crop has been found rather plastic, due to its 
heterozygous or complex hybrid composition, and may be made 
earlier or later, larger or smaller, thru selection. Such changes 
may be brought about by either direct or indirect modes of selec- 
tion. Because of promiscuous wind pollination, selection for 
specific plant characters is somewhat complicated by the segrega- 
tion and recombination of individual or linked characters. The 
progeny seldom represents as extreme a type as the plants which 
provide the seed. By means of ordinary selection continued 
thru a number of years, the type may be materially changed. 
