1900. 
491 
REAL BASIS FOR IMPROVEMENT IN CORN. 
Part II. 
Selection must also be contfnued in order not to 
let possible improvements over what we now possess 
escape our attention; but let us be satisfied with an 
occasional slight increase in yield from the new va¬ 
rieties produced by reliable selectionists, and not 
expect perpetual increases in our crop proportional 
to the length of time that the selectionist has been 
at work. I have a letter from a complaining friend 
who had bought some “pedigreed” seed from a repu¬ 
table corn breeder. In it he says: “I wish I could 
say that this high-bred seed has doubled my yield, 
but I cannot. In reality my yield was only a few 
bushels more than I had been obtaining from my 
old corn.” Only a few bushels more! It takes a 
good deal to satisfy some people. He should remem¬ 
ber that each increase of a bushel per acre in the 
corn crop of the United States is an increase of 
about four per cent of the total, and amounts in 
money to something like $50,000,000. 
We must always have corn breeders—line breed¬ 
ers who are getting the best there is in it from the 
particular variety that is his specialty. But such 
work is for the man who is making corn breeding 
his principal line of endeavor. Every farmer should 
not expect to go into it. It is much preferable that 
the great majority of growers should purchase their 
seed. With this high-bred seed of the corn breeder, 
however, the corn grower can do much to increase 
his yield along a somewhat different line. This 
line of work is a new departure from the old 
methods of corn breeding, and depends largely upon 
some results that have just been obtained at the 
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. 
These experiments show that in order to produce 
the best crops, when yield is the primary object, 
there is another factor to be considered besides the 
actual inherited characters. This factor is vigor, 
and it is in a way a different matter from inheri¬ 
tance. Two plants may have inherited exactly the 
same characters, yet differ markedly in their vigor; 
the one may be a plant six feet high, the other a 
plant ten feet high. This factor, vigor, is what is 
affected when fertilizers are applied to the soil. 
Nutrition is supplied, cell division is stimulated and 
we get a larger crop. The matter is not a question 
of fertilizers alone, however, for when the cell that 
develops into the seed is fertilized, there is some kind 
of a chemical or physical action started, that has 
a great effect on the natural power with which the 
plant will develop. One result of successful polli¬ 
nation is to determine what characters shall be 
transmitted to the future plant, the second is to 
determine the vigor with which the plant shall grow 
under a standard environment, i.e., under certain 
conditions of plant food, moisture and light. 
It is further a well-established fact that with both 
plants and animals, but 
particularly with plants, 
there is a greater amount 
of vigor in a cross be¬ 
tween two unrelated 
strains, than is pro¬ 
duced when closely re¬ 
lated strains are mated. 
This fact is of wide sig¬ 
nificance, but unfortu¬ 
nately has been unno¬ 
ticed and has played al¬ 
most no part in plant 
breeding. One reason 
that it has escaped no¬ 
tice is as follows: To¬ 
bacco being a plant nat¬ 
urally inbred, the in- 
crease in vigor in 
crosses between strains 
is readily observed ; corn 
being a wind - fertilized 
plant and therefore be¬ 
ing constantly crossed in nature, the fact is noticed 
only when we work backwards, or inbreed. It has 
been repeatedly observed that inbred corn plants are 
not as vigorous as cross-bred plants. The reason is 
that when corn is inbred particular types are separated 
out, and these types do not have the stimulus that 
comes from cross breeding. 1 his loss of vigor was 
long thought to be a degeneration, but now we know 
that it is analogous in a reverse manner to the in- 
ciease in vigor in crossing tobacco plants. 
fihese facts affect the corn grower in this way. 
All high-bred varieties are selected toward an ideal 
hi the mind of the corn breeder. He wishes' to ob¬ 
tain a uniform product for the seed corn market. 
The natural consequence is that in a few years he 
has rejected type after type until he has in his pos¬ 
session corn of one strain or family. He mav have 
selected a good strain, a strain that yields well, a 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
strain that posseses more vigor than the old hetero- 
genuous lot combining both good and poor types, but 
he is continually tending toward strict line breed¬ 
ing and thereby doing without the stimulus that 
comes from crossing. 
To overcome this tendency the writer has pro¬ 
posed the following plan. The corn grozuer must 
obtain from corn breeders two different varieties of 
corn. It is better to have both of the same sub¬ 
species, that is, both either dents or flints, although 
the writer has obtained yields higher than those of 
either parent, by crossing a dent corn with a flint 
CHEROKEE ROSE IN NORTH CAROLINA. Fig. 208. 
See Ruralisms, page 496. 
corn. Let us suppose, however, that Learning and 
Reid’s Yellow Dent are the strains purchased. They 
are planted in a small isolated plot in alternate rows, 
and all of the plants of one of the varieties is de- 
tasseled (the tassel pulled out before the pollen is 
shed) at flowering time. All of the ears produced 
by this variety will then have been crossed with pol¬ 
len from the other variety. It is with the crossed 
seed that the commercial field is to be planted the 
next year. 
The plan is exceedingly simple, requiring only the 
precaution that the small hybridization plot is each 
year separated from other corn, and, on the average 
four hours extra labor each year in detasseling one 
variety, this task taking one hour per day on four 
different days. It increases the trade of the corn 
breeder, for the grower buys new seed from him 
each year, although in small quantity. It prevents 
the danger of close breeding. It increases the yield. 
\Ye have found in experimenting with about 30 
crosses, in which all possible combinations of sweet, 
dent and flint corns were made, that in every case 
an increase in yield was made. For reasons too 
long to be given here, however, we think it better 
to cross only dent varieties with dent varieties, and 
flint varieties with flint varieties. 
Our own increases in yield by use of this method 
have been very large, in some cases doubling the 
yield. I do not say this with the idea of holding 
out like prospects to anyone. Our experiments were 
on small trial lots and the increases were undoubt¬ 
edly greater than will be obtained in a commercial 
way. I do believe, however, that some increase will 
he obtained in nearly every case. Just what the in¬ 
crease is can easily be determined by planting a 
little of the seed from each of the parent varieties 
in the commercial field with the cross, and weighing 
up a measured area of each. As stated previously, 
even a small increase makes material gain in the total. 
Just one word of caution in the use of this method. 
Many persons who obtain satisfactory results from 
the cross will probably try to continue the high yield¬ 
ing strain by selecting from the cross itself. This 
is utterly futile, for as soon as you start to perfect 
a uniform strain, you begin to lose the stimulus to 
growth that comes with the cross'. The cross must 
he made each year to be effective. Doubtless crosses 
of certain strains will be much more vigorous than 
others, but as soon as the method comes into more 
general use, we will have a great deal of data from 
which to find the precise crosses to use in each par¬ 
ticular district and on each specific type of land. 
We wish to obtain the best yields possible in all 
portions of the country, and if our crop is produc¬ 
ing profits we care little about whether it scores 
high in some of the ridiculous points in use by mod¬ 
ern corn judges. Conservative, patient work with 
attention to the basic principles of plant breeding 
will do much toward attaining our ambition even in 
spite of the discouragement that often comes from 
following the methods of the “wizards” who pro¬ 
claim unending improvement in all things. 
Conn. Experiment Station. edvvard m. east. 
AN OUTLET FOR DRAIN WATER. 
I see A. J. L. Burton, Mich., is inquiring about a 
troublesome outlet for his water of drainage; and 
this brings to mind at once a thought of a trouble 
I once had along the same lines. The land in ques¬ 
tion slopes from the south upwards gently to the 
north; there is a railroad between my land and that 
of my neighbor. I had a field of 10 acres, very wet, 
but promising good results if drained. On the east 
side ran a tiny rivulet, into which I thought of run¬ 
ning my water of drainage, but found later that my 
lowest land lay along the railroad on the south side of 
field, half way across the field from the rivulet. My 
problem was to relieve the field of water. The rail¬ 
road had built a culvert for the natural overflow *of 
the field in the middle of the north side, which, of 
course, brought to mind the outlet. After a great 
deal of hesitation I decided to say nothing to anyone 
concerned, but to try for an independent outlet. This 
was accomplished in he following described manner: 
We dug a well about 12 feet deep, in the hope of 
finding a deep limestone formation that would dis¬ 
cover a running stream to carry off our water of 
drainage. Failing to find this hoped-for underground 
passage, we timbered up the now dry well and led our 
outlet drains into the well. We thought that proba¬ 
bly the water would escape to an underground pas¬ 
sage from this dry well, but there were some sur¬ 
prises in store, not for us alone, but for our neigh¬ 
bors, as well. In short, our drainage water filled our 
dry well, overflowed and swamped our neighbor, 
lower down, as well as the immediate vicinity of the 
well on our own plot. 
Our neighbor found it 
impossible to do any¬ 
thing at the time, and 
feared even to pasture 
that field. Fie sent me 
word to stop flooding 
him, which, of course, I 
could not do, and so I 
offered him to build an 
outlet from our well to 
his fairly good natural 
outlet, and it is needless 
to say that he found this 
the best and most satis¬ 
factory way to over¬ 
come h i s trouble. We 
were not running water 
on to him; it was seep¬ 
ing from our low lands 
through the soil and up 
through his land, mak¬ 
ing it swampy and wa¬ 
ter-soaked. Then we ran plows through, scooped and 
dug out a main line and put down a triple line of 
three-inch tile, which has carried the water from our 
dry well for years, and has not yet given any of us 
cause for regret. I know my neighbor is more than 
satisfied with the work we did; his land is benefited 
directly, and the improvement in its condition and 
adaptability to his work and convenience is marked, 
and this surely was a case of where “all’s well that 
ends well.” My earnest wish and desire is that all 
my projects may come about as fortuitiously as this 
one has. _i- D - 
Quarantine against rallies now exists in many cities 
and towns throughout New York State. Northern New 
Jersey lias suffered from an outbreak of the disease during 
the past year. local ouarastine existing in many places. 
There has been considerable loss among domestic animals, 
and many persons have been forced to take the Pasteur 
treatment. 
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DIFFERENT TYPES IN A FIELD OF LEAMING CORN. Fig. 209. 
