Vol. LYVI. No. a#80. 
NEW YORK, MARCH 9, 1907. 
WEEKLY. *1.00 i’KK YEAR. 
GREATER CORN YIELDS. 
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NEW ENGLAND. 
Our Heritage of Types. 
I lie corn breeder lias two problems be¬ 
fore him; to liiu 1 the variety already best 
adapted to bis needs, end then to work 
towards its improvement. In localities 
where there arc good varieties already 
adjusted to the peculiarities of the soil 
and climate, it is best to begin with one 
of these adapted strains, The corn 
plant is particularly sensitive to its sur¬ 
roundings, There are varieties which pro¬ 
duce excellent yields ott certain fertile 
soils, which show up to great disadvan¬ 
tage when placed upon infertile soils ill 
comparison with a , ‘p r)n, r land” corn 
which has heCoule adapted to its condi¬ 
tions. This variety in turn may he Ut¬ 
terly worthless when changed to the more 
fertile soil. It is not an inexorable rule, 
however, that no improved varieties 
should be brought into new localities, in 
spite of what is often advised. If there 
is no variety now being grown in your 
locality which is at all up to your re¬ 
quirements try to find an improved vari¬ 
ety that has been produced under condi¬ 
tions of soil and climate similar to your 
own. But do not expect this corn to 
continue to produce the yields upon your 
farm that it has given under the care of 
the originator. There will be a degenera¬ 
tion in yielding power proportional to the 
dissimilarity of conditions, in spite of all 
you can do, until the variety adjusts itself 
to its new home. Then with care in cul¬ 
ture and seed selection you may expect 
gradually to improve tlie strain. Many 
growers have imported fine seed corn 
from a distance, and have had fair yields 
the first year, only to find the next season 
that it fell below the standard of the vari-" 
ety that had been previously used. This 
has been a disappointment, but it is only 
what should have been expected. No 
corn that has given reasonable satisfac¬ 
tion for a long term of years should be 
discarded for a variety of which you per¬ 
sonally know nothing; .rather go to work 
with the best methods of corn selection 
and endeavor to make your variety as 
worthily prominent in name as have 
done a number of well-known corn breed¬ 
ers in the past. But if there is a suffi¬ 
cient reason for changing your seed, then 
give the new variety a fair trial for at 
least three years, with every necessary at¬ 
tention to the best methods for its culture 
and improvement. 
FT.TNT AND DENT VARIETIES.— 
I n New England we Have many varieties 
of flint corn, some of which have been 
grown for two hundred years upon the 
same farm. In late years there has been 
a tendency to crowd out these old vari¬ 
eties to give place to the improved vari¬ 
eties of dent corn. This is an unwise pro¬ 
cedure. The dent and the flint varieties 
fill different spheres of usefulness and 
there is room for both. Tn many parts of 
New England it is impossible to ripen the 
large-cared dent varieties, and therefore 
seed must always be brought from a dis¬ 
tance. This leaves us no chance to im¬ 
prove the variety by means of selection. 
DENT AND INTERMEDIATE TYPES. Fig. 101. 
-rrrji’Tacrmrry.-tni, 
TYPES Up TOEHPEVELQPED S! RAINS, 1'iu, m. 
We call, of course, develop an earlier 
corn in some of the varieties, but early 
corn is antagonistic to large yields, par¬ 
ticularly with single-eared varieties, Flint 
corn has been discriminated against on 
account of its small ears. This is an 
error which lias largely been brought 
about by the so-called schools of corn 
judging, which base their judgment upon 
the handsome type of single ear with no 
knowledge as to its productive efficiency. 
The ear of Longfellow shown in big. too, 
(ear No. 2) came from a breeding plot 
row which last year produced at the rate 
of 87 bushels of shelled corn per acre; 
which was a much higher yield than that 
of the large eared strain of dent, shown 
in Fig. 102 (car No. 1). This was due to 
the fact that nearly every stalk of the 
flint corn produced two cars and some of 
them three ears, while each plant of the 
dent variety produced only one ear. 1 he 
standard that should be established is to 
make the plant the unit of comparison 
and of selection. When this is done we 
will in most cases be comparing two and 
three ears of flint corn In competition 
with the single show ears of dent, and 
the flint var'eties will be given their 
proper value. A second point of interest 
is that two ears of flint corn grown on a 
single plant may produce a pound of 
corn, and still mature but very little later 
than the stalks with single ears, while a 
variety of dent corn which produces one 
pound cars will mature in very few places 
in the average New England season. 
The feeding value of flint corn is also 
higher than that of dent corn, while the 
experiments in progress at the Connecti¬ 
cut Agricultural Experiment Station in¬ 
dicate a great possibility of its further 
increase. For example the mother ear 
from which the Longfellow car shown in 
Fig. too (ear No. 2) was grown, had a 
protein content of over 14 per cent when 
calculated to absolutely dry corn ; Ibis is 
a higher percentage of protein than is 
found in average wheat, while it is 
per cent higher than that of the mother 
of the dent ear shown in Fig. 102, (ear 
No. 1.) 
I do not wish to have it thought from 
this argument that I believe that flint 
varieties should supplant dent varieties. 
Each kind has its place. I bo dent vari¬ 
eties are pre-eminently the silage corns, 
with their 12 to 16 foot stalks and general 
large total yield of nutrients. Our data 
thus far indicate that the great trouble 
with these varieties will be in the fact 
that the seed will have to be often changed 
through non-maturity of the crop. No 
increased yields can then be obtained from 
a more complete adaptation to climatic 
conditions. It is very probable that the 
best results will come from those varieties - 
that are so selected that the average of 
the crop will be in the “dough” stage at 
the end of the season. Some corn can 
then he selected for seed in the field, 
which will be slightly more mature and 
which with proper cr.rc in drying will ger¬ 
minate perfectly the next Spring. 
THE DIFFERENT TYPES.—There 
are oq]y three types of flint corn, as are 
shown above in Fig, loo. These types are^ 
