14 Nebraska Agricultural Exp. Station Research Bul. 16 
harvested in the “milk” stage has been found to give a fair per- 
centage of germination, and a perfect germination may be 
secured from seed harvested in the early “dough” stage. 
In the seasons of 1915, 1916, and 1917, seed of Hogue’s Yel- 
low Dent corn was selected at successive stages of maturity. 
Immediately after being selected the seed was hung in a dry, 
airy place and thus cured free from mould or other injury. It 
was tested for germination late in the winter after becoming 
air-dry. The results are shown in Table 1. 
The average date of pollination during the three years was 
August 3. This would indicate that the date of fertilization of 
the ovules was August 4. The average date during the three 
years of the first selection of corn was August 24, which is 
approximately twenty days later than the date of fertilization. 
This first selected seed which had but three weeks development 
after fertilization weighed only 39 per cent as much, moi 4 u re- 
free, as the best matured seed. Nevertheless, in spite of this 
premature selection, the earliest gathered seed germinated 80 per 
cent on an average. The moisture-free weights of 100 kernels 
for the successive selections were respectively 12.2, 17.0, 20.4, 
24.2, 27.9, 30.7 and 31.4 grams. The respective germinations of 
these seven lots of seed were 80, 92, 94, 97, 96 and 98 per cent. 
The germinative ability of very immature corn does not 
appear to be, as is commonly believed, due to more rapid 
growth and earlier maturity of the embryo than takes place in 
the endosperm. The embryo does not mature early with a 
later filling in of the endosperm. But rather both develop in 
approximately the same ratio as will appear in Table 2. 
Table 2 — Relative development of embryo and ' kernel , of 
Hogue's Yellow Dent corn harvested at vanous stages of 
maturity (1917) 
Sample 
number 
Condition 
of grain 
Date 
of 
harvest 
Days 
s'nce 
fertiliza- 
tion of 
kernel 
Mo’sture-fue weights of 
100 
kernels 
1 100 
em- 
bryos 
100 kernels 
without 
embryo 
Ratio of 
embryo 
to kernel 
1 
Milk stage 
Aug. 28 
18 
Groms 
8.28 
Groms 
0.-5 
Groms 
7.63 
.0785 
2 
Late milk stage . 
Sept. 4 
25 
13.45 
1.41 
12.04 
.1048 
3 
Roasting ear 
Sept. 1 1 
32 
17.54 
1.94 
15.60 
.1106 
4 
Late roasting ear 
Sept. 18 
39 
21.17 
2.18 
18.99 
.1030 
5 
I )ent ing 
Sept. 25 
46 
25.10 
2.6? 
22.43 
.1064 
6 
Glazing 
Oct. 2 
53 
28.04 
3.12 
24.82 
.1117 
