660 
'THIS RURAt NEW-VOKKER 
May 20. 
and it works. Of course, the potato does not prove 
my theory, but it is a good thing to reason from, 
inasmuch as it shows that there are cellular and vas¬ 
cular changes in plants as well as in seeds, and that 
it is reasonable to expect improvement front both, and 
from both together, and that it is reasonable to expect 
to have them together. frank a. blower. 
Ohio. 
By my statement “that the selectionist in trying to 
obtain disease resistant watermelons by selecting the 
ncn-affected plants would never obtain results,’’ I 
mean, of course, that, as we know that no true water¬ 
melon has been produced by nature that will resist 
wilt, therefore he would never obtain results unless 
a resistant type zvas produced in the future. If such 
a resistant type appeared it would be constant from 
the first, and would not be gradually improved by se¬ 
lection, although selection might fix the desirable char¬ 
acters in the variety in that “rogue" plants, or plants 
that have split out with other characters due to Mcn- 
delian inheritance, may be discarded. 
The paper by Green and Waid, of the Ohio Experi¬ 
ment Station, is an excellent citation in support of Mr. 
Blower’s views, as, of course, there is no question 
here of the isolation of types from a mixture, since 
it is an asexual reproduction. This paper, however, is 
against biological principles that have been upheld 
with a great deal more data and a great deal better 
reasoning than that shown in the Ohio Bulletin. A cor¬ 
respondence with all the great horticulturists of this 
country who are growing potatoes, with Arthur W. 
Sutton, of Sutton & Sons, Reading, England, and with 
Vilmorin, elicits the fact that no variety of potatoes 
known to these potato growers, than whom there are 
none greater, owes its varietal characteristics to bud 
variation. In a few cases color has been lost, and in 
one case color has apparently appeared, but these dif¬ 
ferences made the potato neither better nor worse 
than it was before. It should be stated further that 
these variations suddenly appeared, and were not due 
to the selection of small variations. In correspond¬ 
ence with German potato growers I find no evidence 
to indicate that Germans have increased the starchy 
content of their potato by selection of tubers. 
In regard to the work of Green and Waid a number 
of criticisms may be submitted. It is entirely possible 
that some of the stock which they had consisted in 
reality of more than one variety. As an illustration 
of this point I remember visiting an experiment sta¬ 
tion where potato experiments were being carried on. 
One variety had been entirely killed by tip-burn—a 
physiological trouble which, by the way, is often mis¬ 
taken for early blight; a few plants, however, re¬ 
mained green. These were staked out to be selected 
as resistant plants. When they were dug, however, I 
found by a microscopic inspection of the color of the 
sprouts that all these “resistant" plants were of a sec¬ 
ond variety. 
As a second criticism it is a well-known fact that 
both early blight and tip-burn attack varieties at a 
critical stage of their growth; therefore, varieties 
planted the same day may be infected very differently 
at a latter date, and yet be equally susceptible, their 
growing period has merely been different and the crit¬ 
ical stage of susceptibility has been reached at differ¬ 
ent times. Their statement that different hills of the 
same variety showed inherited resistance may of 
course have been due to bud variation. I submit, how¬ 
ever, that no resistant variety of potato has ever been 
put upon the market which could support such claims. 
I f disease resistance could be obtained by selection it 
would have been obtained by some one of the hun¬ 
dreds who are experimenting. The few varieties 
showing some disease resistance have all been pro¬ 
duced sexually. I freely acknowledge that in the 
seed-propagated annuals, like cucumbers and melons, 
Mr. Blower may find a resistant variety, and the only 
way he will find it will be to take seed from appar¬ 
ently resistant plants. I wish to impress this point, 
however; if he finds a resistant variety, it will be re¬ 
sistant from the first, and will not be aided by con¬ 
tinuous selection. As an illustration of this fact, R. H. 
Biffen on “Rust-Resistant Wheats,” may be cited. 
Rust resistance was found to be a unit character, and 
when a susceptible and a resistant variety were crossed 
all the plants were susceptible; yet, in the second 
generation, due to the fact that the germ cells which 
contained the resistant factor had remained pure, 
plants as resistant as the resistant parent were ob¬ 
tained, and these remained resistant in the succeeding 
generation. The point that I wished to emphasize is 
that many selectionists continually call “non-infected” 
plants “disease-resistant” plants. e. m. east. 
Conn. Agr. Exp. Station. 
Oi r little campaign for “protein clubs” seems to have 
taken root. Hundreds who never tried oats and peas be¬ 
fore have them growing this year. Alfalfa and Soy beans 
will lie tried by many, and clover will be given greater 
care. Any fodder that hunts nitrogen for ns is worth 
coaxing along. 
BURNING LIME ON THE FARM. 
I have burned two carloads of limestone. Slaked 
lime, as it so becomes, is easier to handle and 
cheaper than the dry, finely-ground commercial agri¬ 
cultural lime. The home-burned limestone, when 
damp, as it will become after burning and being 
exposed, can be scattered without the discomfort 
attending the scattering or drilling of the dry ground 
lime. I do not believe it will pay one to build a 
furnace unless a great deal of stone is to be burned. 
The only advantage of a furnace is the economy 
of fuel. The car of limestone first burned was in 
large pieces, from size of a hat down. The second 
car had been crushed before shipping, and was egg 
size. One burned as well as the other, although I 
have been told by those having more experience that 
it is best to break the stones into small pieces. Liv¬ 
ing in the soft-coal district our fuel is cheap. The 
run of mine costs us at the mine $1.30 net ton. the 
slack 50 cents net ton, while the limestone costs $1 
gross ton f. o. b. cars our station. The coal had to 
be hauled from the mine about same distance away 
from farm as the railroad station is from farm. 
By referring to sketch you will more readily un¬ 
derstand the building of the kiln. We leveled a space 
about 20 feet square, and covered it with old fence 
rails or light logs (AA) to a depth of about 15 
inches, leaving an opening. P, all the way through. 
Tn center we erected a wooden stack, F. for a fine, 
out of about 10-inch boards. This stack was about 
seven feet high and inside 8x10 inches. All around 
the rails bank up the earth, E, leaving opening or 
flue, P, open. On the rails cover with 10 to 12 inches 
of coal, BB. We used run of mine lump coal for 
that layer, but believe slack would have answered. 
On top of this layer put a 12-inch layer of limestone, 
LL. then a six-inch layer of slack, then a 12-inch 
layer of limestone and follow with a six-inch layer 
of slack. Then the third layer of 12 inches of lime¬ 
stone, on top of which about a 12-inch layer of 
slack. Cover the edges, DD, with about four inches 
of slack. Fill the flue P with paper and kindling 
wood in as far as you can reach and light off, and 
let it burn for about six hours. After six hours, 
where flame breaks out cover with slack as best you 
can to prevent outside burning too soon: that is. 
smother flame with slack. After six to eight days 
let. it alone, and in probably three or four days, 
maybe six days more the fire will burn out. 
The cost of 73,000 pounds of limestone delivered 
at our railroad station was $32.60, and the coal and 
slack cost $20.95, or a total of $53.55. Theoretically, 
limestone burns to 60 per cent of its weight in lime. 
Assuming that is correct, we had -13,800 pounds of 
lime, or about 22 net tons, making the cost per ton 
exclusive of labor and hauling $2.44. This too as¬ 
sumes no value to old rails burnt. The dry agri¬ 
cultural lime finely ground and sold in bags in less 
than carloads costs us $6 net ton at our station. 
Pennsylvania. stewart johnston. 
WIRE FENCES AND LIGHTNING. 
During the latter part of April we had several se¬ 
vere electrical storms, during some of which the 
lower wire and the base of the tree shown in Fig. 257 
were struck by lightning. Just where the lightning 
first struck the wire was not apparent, but the wire 
was blackened from a splice 10 feet to the right of 
the tree to a post about 30 feet to the left. At each 
side of wdiere this wire is fastened to the tree is a 
streak cut by the lightning from the wire to the 
ground, as may be noticed in the picture. About 30 
feet to the left of this tree, after passing two other 
posts, the lightning left the wire over a solid post, 
almost splitting it apart, and entered the ground, ap¬ 
parently. The wire in question is some of the old 
Buckthorn iron ribbon, has been in use about 30 
years, and before being struck was still heavily gal¬ 
vanized, but now it is badly blackened, as may be 
noticed in the picture. Fortunately no stock were 
near the wire at the time. This stroke occurred on 
low ground, surrounded by tall trees, some of them 
walnut, and it drives home two ideas: Wire fences 
should be grounded at frequent intervals, and live 
stock insurance should enable one to rest easier dur¬ 
ing a thunderstorm. One curious thing about this 
occurrence is that none of the other wires was af¬ 
fected, and only the lower wire, which was only about 
15 inches from the ground. Altogether, only about 
40 feet of the wire was affected. 
Hillsboro, O. w. e. d. 
NOTES ON CORN BREEDING. 
There is increasing evidence of returning sanity on 
the subject of corn breeding. I have for years been 
kicking against the score-card-pretty-ear fad of the 
conventional corn shows. I have tried to show r that 
the ear-row breeding to insure crossing would inevita¬ 
bly lead to the closest kind of inbreeding, and that the 
general mixture of pollen would be far better. And I 
have been reading with interest the articles in The 
R. N.-Y. by Edward M. East, and want to endorse 
fully the closing part of his last article, “We wish to 
obtain the best yields possible in all portions of the 
country, and if our crop is producing profits we care 
little about whether it scores high in some of the 
ridiculous points in use by modern corn judges.” This 
is just what I have been hammering at for years. I 
do not believe that the craze for pretty ears has in¬ 
creased the yield of corn except as attracting the atten¬ 
tion of farmers to better care in the selection of their 
seed. In fact, I believe that the breeding for a single 
feature in the corn plant has lessened rather than in¬ 
creased the crops, for these show ears are invariably 
the only ones on the plant, and I have time and again 
proved that two medium-sized ears on a stalk will 
always make more corn than one big ear. Whenever 
there is a national contest for corn yields Marlboro 
country, S. C., carries off the prize because the growers 
there adhere to the corn that has a prolific character 
in making two or more ears per plant. If I remember 
aright, it was stated at the time when the exhibitor 
bought back his prize ear for $250 and got thousands 
of dollars worth of advertising, that the field from 
which the ear came made 68 bushels of corn per acre. 
Now I have not the slightest doubt that there were 
hundreds of fields of corn in Illinois from which no 
prize ears were shown, that made far greater yields 
than this. But I notice that in most of the corn shows 
this year there are to be contests for yields and com¬ 
parative cost of production, which is a move in the 
right direction. There is no objection to pretty ears, 
provided thev have been bred to greater prolificacy, for 
it is corn, bushels more of corn per acre, that the 
farmer needs, and if pretty ears do not give him these, 
then let him get the corn from .any sort of ear. But 
corn shows where all the prizes go to the style of the 
ear alone remind me of the old fad for solid color and 
black points in Jersey cows, which ignored the real 
object of feeding cows, the making of dairy products. 
The line breeder in corn may get a typical ear, but 
will inevitably reduce the vigor of his plants. At an 
institute last Winter I was urging the necessity for 
breeding to an ideal plant and increasing the vigor and 
prolificacy of the corn by breeding to a strain pro¬ 
ducing more than one ear per plant. The director 
called upon a corn breeder present and asked him if 
he did not prefer a strain with one large ear per plant. 
He of course replied that he did, for he had been 
always breeding for the corn shows, which demand a 
big ear, and though he had land that would make 100 
bushels per acre with a prolific corn like the Marlboro 
Prolific, he did not reach that by 30. bushels. But 
the tide is evidently setting in the right direction, and 
more prizes will be given hereafter for yield and 
economy of production. If a few neighbors, living 
some miles apart, are all growing a yellow dent it 
will be, as Mr. East suggests, a good plan to exchange 
seed occasionally for some alternate rows, so as to 
increase the vigor of the plants by crossing, no matter 
whether all arc Learning or some other yellow dent. 
The same rule will also work well with white dents. 
But the greatest point is the weeding out of inferior 
types of plants by preventing their scattering pollen 
by taking out the green tassels. 
But I cannot agree with Mr. East that farmers 
should purchase their seed. 1 believe that better suc¬ 
cess can be had by careful selection from a seed plot 
planted annually, and kept in vigor by an occasional 
out-cross, for the farmer may have to go some 
distance to find the professional breeder, and may find 
that the corn not acclimated to his section will give 
inferior results. Then, if the breeder has simply been 
working for a particular type of ear, the buyer may 
be no better off than by planting the general average 
of his field, for any system of breeding that does not 
take into consideration the whole plant, and to breed 
towards a typical plant rather than the single feature 
of a pretty ear, is defective. The whole plant needs 
attention. Corn in the South tends to grow too tall, 
and its stature can be greatly reduced and its vjgor 
unimpaired by selecting the ears for seed nearest the 
ground. I have reduced the average stature of a tall- 
growing corn fully two feet in this way, and have had 
fully as sturdy plants and more productive. 1 he Illi¬ 
nois Station has recently issued a bulletin showing the 
effect of selection for lower stalks. We want sturdy, 
medium-sized stalks and short-jointed ones, and to 
increase the yield we need to increase the number of 
ears per acre, and this can be best done by breeding 
a plant that averages more than one ear per plant. 
In short, we need to breed for greater production, 
even if the ears will not pass the score card. 
w. F. MASSEY. * 
