Vol. LXVI. No. 2982. NEW YORK, MARCH 23, 1907. WEEKLY”, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
GREATER CORN YIELDS. 
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NEW ENGLAND. 
Our Heritage of Types. 
Part III. 
When the settlers of what is now Massachusetts ob¬ 
tained their first seed corn from the Indians, they 
learned from the latter their methods of selection. The 
Indians had for many years planted seed 
only from the largest of the ears, and 
had by this means made considerable 
improvement in their corn. Several 
varieties, including one of sweet corn, 
are said to have been developed. For 
nearly three hundred years these meth¬ 
ods of the Indians have been in vogue 
in New England, with the single im¬ 
provement of hand-crossing in the pro¬ 
duction of new varieties. Many growers 
have contented themselves with simply 
taking the best-looking ears from the 
crib to use in planting. This method 
has caused a loss of crop of from 10 to 
50 per cent a year through non-germina¬ 
tion of seed. Other more progressive 
growers have made their selections at 
husking time, and by taking care of the 
selected ears through the Winter, have 
been relatively much surer of the vigor¬ 
ous germination and growth of their 
seed in the Spring. The best of these 
pioneer corn breeders have gone into 
the field before cutting, and have se¬ 
lected their corn with due regard to 
good character in both stalk and ears, 
and have been absolutely sure of the 
vitality of their seed by making pre¬ 
liminary germination tests. 
Of late years animal and plant breed¬ 
ers have not been satisfied with selec¬ 
tion by appearance. The dairyman has 
ceased to pay primary attention to 
length of tail and spots of coat color in 
different breeds, and is using as his 
breeding dams those cows which give 
the largest annual yield of milk, com¬ 
bined with the highest percentage of 
butter fat. Points of form have given 
place to performance records. The corn 
breeder, also, now has a method by 
which he can determine the perform¬ 
ance records—the productive efficiency— 
of each ear of his corn. This is the 
ear-to-the-row method of corn breeding. 
The theory upon which this method is 
based is very simple. Suppose we have 
one hundred ears of corn of a certain 
variety which we wish to use as a basis 
from which to breed. We have shown 
in our previous paper that we cannot 
tell which of these ears is the best pro¬ 
ducer by examining its outward appear¬ 
ance. How then shall we determine it? 
The answer to our question and the 
basis of our system of breeding is: On 
uniform soil, grow an equal number of 
kernels from each ear and compare their 
yields. What could be more simple or more reasonable, 
than to make each ear tell what it can do by an actual 
field test? We select a plot of uniform soil, and plant 
say 100 hills from each ear in succession; that is, 100 
hills are planted from the kernels of one ear in the 
first row, and 100 hills from the kernels of the second 
ear in row number two, and so on, with each ear of 
the 100 ears. At the end of the season, we simply har¬ 
vest and weigh separately, the corn produced on each 
row. The entire amount of corn from each row came 
from the same mother ear, and a comparison of these 
iveights of corn from each row, will therefore give the 
comparative productive power of each of the mother 
ears which we planted in the Spring. 
The question is often asked: Do not the largest and 
best-looking ears always give the largest yields in these 
tests? They do not. The large, handsome ear is 
quite likely to owe its beauty to some particular ad¬ 
vantage which its mother plant has had, over the other 
plants in the field. It may have grown in a more fertile 
spot of soil; it may have had the advantage of more 
moisture; or through accident to the other kernels, it 
may have been the only plant in the hill. Such char¬ 
acters due solely to advantage of environment, will 
not be likely to be transmitted to the handsome ear’s 
progeny. But, on the other hand, when we grow and 
weigh up a whole row of 100 hills of the progeny of 
an ear, such individual advantages are overwhelmed by 
numbers. That is, it is the average producing power— 
the productive efficiency “in the long run” that counts. 
This method is not purely theoretical. It is the basis 
of the systems of all the prominent commercial corn 
breeders, and can be found in use all over the United 
States. New England has been a little “conservative,” 
but there are a number of breeding plots in Connecticut 
which are now planning their third year of work, and 
I believe others have been started in 
Vermont. There ought to be still more 
plots started. I believe that it would be 
commercially profitable for at least one 
man to be breeding corn on every one of 
the different types of soil in New Eng¬ 
land. To be sure, corn breeding or the 
breeding of other crops is not held out 
as a means of reaping exceedingly large 
and easy profits. Corn breeding is a 
work for the man who wants to see 
progress, who loves plant study, and 
who, when successful, is satisfied with 
the fair profit that comes with his suc¬ 
cess, and the knowledge that by increas¬ 
ing inherent yielding qualities of a sin¬ 
gle variety of corn he is a benefactor to 
the commonwealth. That the compen¬ 
sation for the extra work is fair, is 
shown by the prosperous firms in the 
Middle West which are selling all the 
improved seed corn they can furnish at 
a very great advance over the price of 
a few years ago. No doubt other con¬ 
ditions have contributed towards raising 
this price, but it is only just that a well- 
matured corn of guaranteed vitality, 
which will produce a higher yield per 
acre, should sell at a higher price than 
the poor crib selections of every grower. 
It is certainly encouraging that the 
growers appreciate this fact, and are 
willing to pay the advanced price. 
The details of the rules for conduct¬ 
ing a breeding plot are not hard and 
fast, nevertheless, a number of small 
points should be remembered in order 
to have the work progress as it should. 
The spot selected for the plot should be 
one in which the texture of the soil is 
uniform, and which has previously been 
fertilized and cropped in the same man¬ 
ner. It is not necessary that the plot 
be absolutely level; indeed, it is better 
that it should be slightly rolling, in 
order that there should be no spots 
where water will stand. Care should be 
taken, however, in laying out the plot, 
to have the rows run up and down the 
declination so that the comparison of 
the crops of rows grown side by side 
will be perfectly fair. A part of each 
row will then be upon the higher, and a 
part upon the lower ground. The 
preparation of the seed bed, fertilization 
and cultivation, should be only such as 
should ordinarily be given to produce a 
good crop in the general field. Each 
row, however, should be treated abso¬ 
lutely alike, in this connection. 
We recommend 96 as the proper number of rows, 
partly because this is a convenient number to attend 
to, and partly because it is so many times divisible by 
two, as will be seen to be necessary. In the first place 
every alternate row should be detasseled. This is done 
by going over the plot several times just as the tassels 
appear, and carefully separating them at the top joint 
by a steady upward pull. This work should of course 
be done before any of the tassels are sufficiently mature 
WHERE THE HORSE TREADS OUT THE WOODPILE. Fig. 118. 
THE OLD RELIABLE FARM POWER. Fig. 119. 
