I 
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Vol. LXXVTII. Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co., 
333 W. 30th St., New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 20, 1919. 
Entered as Second-Claa* Matter, June 28, 1879, at the Post , T 
Office at New York, N. Y„ under the Act of March 3. 1879. No. -±yoo. 
Review of Season’s Work on a N. Y. Farm 
C ORN SELECTION.—For several years we have 
been trying to improve our field corn. We 
started with what'we had known as “Poor Man’s 
Dent” This was eight-rowed dent corn, but it had 
been accidentally crossed with various other varie¬ 
ties, and had not been carefully selected, so that it 
was, as a whole, fully as bad as the ordinary 
farmer’s “just corn.” After a year or two of selec¬ 
tion of the best ears of whitecap dent my brother 
found one or two ears of 10 or 12-rowed corn, and 
Part I. 
In our cool seasons we can plant this corn about the 
middle of May and have it ripe by the middle of 
September. For two or three years I have been 
working toward getting a strain which should regu¬ 
larly have two good ears on a stalk and this year 
put out a small ear-to-row breeding plot. The press 
of work made us neglect many things we wanted to 
do, and this plot was only cultivated once and not 
hoed at all. Also the crows and a neighbor’s chickens 
took toll of it, and when we cut the other corn I 
planted. One ear was the first good ear to ripen iu 
1918. This gave so poor a yield that it was thrown 
out, but the others were all about the same. For 
several years we have not planted any red corn, but 
this year there are a large number of ears of red 
dent and white cap red dent corn in the crop. I 
am throwing most of these into a crate and shall 
be glad to pass a few on to any plant breeder who 
may be interested in seeing what can be done with 
them. If I had a place far enough away from our 
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It Ought to he Under Cover, But Where is the Labor? Fig. 605. 
planted them. The next year he got about a peck 
of such ears, and the next year there was enough 
to plant the whole field. Two years ago we decided 
on a certain type towards which to breed. Last 
Spring we narrowed the selection by throwing out 
all typical ears which had a red cob. We are work¬ 
ing toward a variety which has a clear yellow kernel 
with white or yellow cap, small cob, which is not 
much enlarged at base and is well filled at tip, the 
whole ear being about nine inches long and about 
two inches in diameter. The plant grows about 
seven feet tall and bears a large number of leaves. 
thought it was not worth bothering with'. However, 
a little later I had a chance to pick one row and 
then, much later, to gather the rest. The results 
were, in a way, disappointing, but at the same time 
so impressive as to make it interesting to try again 
on a little larger scale next year. It looked as 
though some friend had been through the field and 
borrowed a supply of seed for another year, the 
crows took about a third of the hills in the Spring 
and the chickens had harvested much of the down 
corn, but there was left nearly a bushel of ears to 
represent the crop from each half ear of corn 
present fields l might try to develop a red dent, 
variety which would otherwise be like our present 
ideal in shape and size of ear and in size and growth 
of plant. 
KILLING QUACK.—Some of our friends have 
spoken of the tractor disk as the best tool for de¬ 
stroying quack grass where it can be used regularly. 
We did not have a good chance to try it out much 
in the orchards, but when preparing ground for 
wheat we plowed a very heavy quack sod. This was 
worked over rive or rix times at short intervals 
before sowing. There is now practically no grass to 
