WEEKI.Y, Si 00 PER YEAR 
L.XIX. No. 4040 
NE 
Voi.. 
AN EAR-TO-ROW CORN CONTEST. 
VARIATION IN GROWTH AND YIELD. 
What Does It Demonstrate? 
Ever since the ear-co-row test for determining the 
hereditary qualities of corn ears, came to my notice, 
I have thought I should try it if the opportunity came 
my way. One year ago 
I saw my chance. A 
choice lot of seed corn 
of the Pride of the 
Xorth variety had been 
harvested on Cornell 
University Farm in the 
Autumn of 1908. It was 
carefully cured, and be¬ 
fore Spring I made a 
selection of 25 ears to 
be used in this test. In 
selecting these ears par¬ 
ticular attention was 
given to the weight of 
the ear. its length and 
shape, the shape of ker¬ 
nels and the way in 
which butts and tips 
were filled out. If I 
were asked which of 
these features I regarded 
as most important, I 
should hardly know how 
to answer. A person 
who tries to place 25 
ears of corn in the order 
of their relative merit 
will not be able to give 
his reasons in percent¬ 
age without the use of 
a score card. In F'ig. 156 
the ears arc numbered 
and arranged in the or¬ 
der of their planting. 
The first five 
about the best 
as nearly as I 
by hand and 
they were 
placed in 
other 20 
I thought it wise to make the test rows short and 
to duplicate them on an adjoining plot in the same 
field. The duplicates were “in hard luck” as their 
growth showed all Summer. The original test rows 
were fortunately planted on fairly uniform soil, and 
all made a good growth. The rows were 40 inches 
wide, with hills 40 inches apart. Each separate row 
cut by mistake, 
up, determined 
and I did. 
cars were 
in the lot, 
could tell 
eye, and 
carefully 
order. The 
were placed 
EARS FOR TEST ARRANGED IN ORDER OF TFIEIR SELECTION. Fig. 156 . 
iwith less icare, but in 
each case with some 
reason for it. From each 
ear six kernels were 
taken for a germination 
test. In four days six 
of the samples were all 
sprouted. In six days 
10 more had shown good 
sprouts on all kernels. 
There remained five 
samples, in which five 
out of six kernels had 
sprouted vigorously, one 
in which four kernels, 
and one in which only 
two showed healthy 
sprouts. I decided to 
plant from all of the ears, using enough seed to insure 
a stand. Half the grain was shelled from each ear 
and planted May 25. 
1 he scil on which this test grew is a clay loam. 
Twenty loads of fresh manure were applied to a clover 
sod and plowed under about two weeks before the 
corn was planted. It seemed like an opportunity for 
a good corn crop for this locality. As the produc¬ 
ts ity of the soils in this field varies quite a little, 
SELECTED EARS TO FORM TWO STRAINS OF CORN. Fig. 157. 
was counted as one two-hundredth of an acre. Had 
the rows been longer they would have extended into 
less uniform soil and increased the liability of error 
in calculating the separate yields. When the corn 
plants were well above ground they were thinned to 
three stalks per hill. At that time all the rows seemed 
to be growing equally well. They were given the 
same attention with hoe and cultivator as the rest of 
the field. 
On September 27. row No. 1 was 
I saved this fodder and shocked it 
to get a new fact out of it if possible, 
At that date many New York farmers were cutting 
and shocking corn to save it from probable frost. On 
September 30, I took note of the comparative fodder 
giowtii, number oi ripe ears per row as indicated by 
drying husks, and the 
number of stalks per 
row in all but row No. 1. 
On Oct. 13 the tempera¬ 
ture went down to freez¬ 
ing point and the foliage 
was badly damaged. It 
•was allowed to stand un¬ 
til October 27 in order 
to mature the ears more 
thoroughly. The last 
row was husked on the 
30th, and the product 
from each row was car¬ 
ried to the barn for 
immediate sorting and 
weighing. Each lot was 
divided into matured 
and soft corn, the hand 
and eye being the guides. 
The weight of each divi¬ 
sion was taken. To 
determine the moisture 
content a large compo¬ 
site sample from several 
matured weighings, and 
a similar sample was 
taken from the soft 
weighings and dried in 
an oven until a constant 
weight was reached. 
This took several days. 
The per cent of solids 
in the matured ears 
was found to be 68.1. 
In the soft ears it was 
51.5 per cent. When 
these samples were shell¬ 
ed the per cent of cob 
in the oven-dried ears 
was found to be 14.3 for 
the matured and 18.5 for 
the soft corn. By using 
these percentages I was 
able to calculate the 
yields from each row ex¬ 
cept No. 1 to a uniform 
dry basis. The results 
are arranged in descend¬ 
ing order according to 
total yield of dried shel¬ 
led corn. By putting 
the other data in its 
proper place I made a 
table which forms an in¬ 
teresting study. First 
there is the range in 
yield of 20.6 bushels, 
with a fairly uniform 
gradation from 69 to 48.4 
a higher scale of yields, 
not materially different, 
bushels. Drought prevented 
The range in maturity was 
but shows no coincidence with yields. There is very 
little relation between the number of barren stalks 
and yield except in the case of No. 6, where lowest 
yield is coupled with largest number of stalks bearing 
no grain. I fully expected to find that the rows 
which appeared to have the most ripening ears on 
September 30 would show the greatest per cent of 
