[August, 
560 Seed-Breeding. 
Table II. 
Total No. No. of No. of No. of Ears good Merchantable 
of ears, good ears, fair ears, poor ears, as seed. ears. 
Plot I. 86 38 6 42 2 44 
„ II. 92 57 13 22 5 70 
„ III. I04* 47 22 35 26 69 
We can study this table with advantage, as there is shown 
an influence of cultivation upon the ear and upon the crop, 
which conforms to the general experience of farmers, and 
hence is undoubtedly a true and not an exceptional influence. 
It is to the selection of the seed that we must look for the 
important factor, which manure and cultivation shall aft 
upon to give the largest possible result. As a rule, seed has 
been selefted with reference to the grain, and not with refer- 
ence to the plant. We hence find many varieties of corn with 
grain of superior quality and ears of fair appearance, but the 
appearance of the ear gives us but little clue to the pro- 
lificacy of the plant. In our own experience we have had 
the results from seed corn from similar ears vary as 2 to 1, 
or as an aftual result 55 bushels of grain per acre from the 
one, and no bushels from the other, under equivalent 
conditions of treatment. It is to the corn plant that we 
must look first in the improving of seed corn through 
seleftion, and we must bear in mind continuously the prin- 
ciples of breeding, remembering that by a law of nature the 
seed must transmit the tendencies it has itself inherited and 
acquired. 
If there is one principle of breeding which is more fully 
and satisfactorily determined than another, it is that of the 
survival of the fittest. That animal or plant which is best 
fitted to overcome obstacles is the one which in the long 
run will succeed in establishing itself and its race. If we 
desire to modify individuals of either class, animals or 
plants, we by our interference furnish them advantages 
which aid them in overcoming, or prevent them from coming 
into conflift with the competition which they cannot endure. 
Thus our corn plant is protefted during growth from com- 
peting for the possession of the ground with weeds ; it is aided 
and encouraged through the furnishing of conditions suited 
to root-extension by means of the plough, the harrow, and the 
cultivator, &c. If we study the corn plant with reference to 
* Three ears of large size too much affe&ed by smut to count in the harvest. 
On Plot I. considerable smut, but none to destroy the ears. On Plot II. less 
smut, but no ears destroyed. 
