i879-j 
Seed-Breeding. 
563 
The character of the grain and its arrangements on the 
cob, the length of cob, &c., are minor objects for the breeder’s 
care, as requiring less time to fix, as being most readily ap- 
prehended, and as showing results so quickly as to encourage 
continued efforts. These minor characters can usually be 
fixed by three years of selection, if any variety of ordinary 
culture be worked on, and if the changes desired are not 
outside of the fixed characters of the variety. If we shall 
attempt to change a field corn into a sweet corn through 
other selections than those influenced by hybridisation be- 
tween the two, or vice versa , we shall have difficulty, perhaps 
shall fail, most probably shall not succeed. We can always 
place our efforts most successfully where the plant experi- 
mented on indicates by the nature of its variation the direc- 
tion for us to aCt. Do we wish to change an 8-rowed corn 
into a 12-rowed corn ? We shall do it more readily with a 
variety that presents frequent variations from the 8-rowed 
form, than with another where this variation seldom occurs. 
Do we wish to diminish the proportion of the cob to the 
grain ? We can do this more readily with a variety where 
the proportion already existing is far from uniform, than with 
another variety where the proportion is quite uniform. Do 
we wish to lenghthen our ears ? We can do this the more 
readily with a variety which varies greatly in the number of 
ovaries in line on the cob, than with another which presents 
a more uniform number, &c. 
We believe that by the proper selection of varieties to be 
used as a beginning to work from, that we can so far offset 
the influences of climate as to grow a flint corn into a dent 
corn, or vice versa ; a pop-corn into a field corn ; a yellow 
corn into a white corn ; a flat corn kernel into a rounded 
kernel ; a deep-kerneled corn into a shallow-kerneled corn ; 
an 8-rowed corn into a 10, 12, 16, or more, rowed corn; a 
large cob into a small cob ; a short cob into a long cob ; an 
ordinary variety of corn into a branching variety, &c. We 
believe that the corn ear can be removed, through selection, 
from the upper node to an intermediate one ; can be borne 
on branches either terminal or axillary ; can be transferred 
to the tassel, &c. In a word, that under the axiomatic law 
of inheritance, or the transmissal of forces, the process of 
selection will produce these changes we have indicated. 
What kind of corn should the New England farmer seek 
to develop ? First and last, one possessing prolificacy, as 
being the most important quality and the most difficult to be 
attained. Then smallness of cob, as being a correlative with 
the stalk (to be used and found exceedingly valuable as a 
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