59 « 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXIII, No. 8 
Table XIV .—Relation of early vigor to shrinkage in weight of grain , determined on 
1,325 plants of Funk's Ninety-Day corn in two inoculation experiments , alternate 
hills of which were inoculated at planting time with Gibberella saubinetii grown on 
clean soil of high fertility at Bloomington , III., in zgig 
Experiment No. 
Treatment of seed. 
Shrinkage of grain from plants classified 
in their early growth stages as vigor¬ 
ous, semivigorous, or weak. 
Vigorous. 
Semivigor¬ 
ous. 
Weak. 
fUninoculated. 
Per cent. 
24.7 
26. 4 
18. 9 
21-5 
Per cent- 
26. 4 
2 7-3 
24. 8 
28. 4 
Per cent. 
30. I 
27. 2 
34.4 
29. 2 
5 2 A . 
T) 
\lnoculated. 
fUninoculated. 
52 .. 
\ Inoculated. 
Table XIV gives the percentage of shrinkage of the grain from vigor¬ 
ous, semivigorous, % and weak plants harvested only a few days before a 
killing frost. The product from each plant was weighed separately 
when harvested and again after the ears were thoroughly air-dried. The 
results show that in every case there is a greater percentage of shrinkage 
in the grain produced by the weak than by the vigorous plants (fig. 4). 
Plants of medium vigor tend to have an intermediate percentage of 
shrinkage. This indicates that the same factors which enable the more 
vigorous plants to grow most rapidly and to excel in grain production 
also cause the grain to mature earlier. At harvest time there was little 
apparent difference in the height of plants that were classified in their 
early stages of growth as vigorous, semivigorous, and weak. Inci¬ 
dentally it is of interest to note that there is a slightly greater shrinkage 
in the product of the inoculated rows than in that of the uninoculated 
in the vigorous and semivigorous groups. In the groups of weak plants 
the situation is reversed, the weak plants having a smaller percentage 
of shrinkage in the inoculated than in the uninoculated rows. This 
may be accounted for by the fact that many of the weak plants in the 
inoculated rows died prematurely, thus permitting partial curing before 
harvest. 
RELATION of EARLY vigor and quality of product as influenced by 
SEED INFECTION 
DATA OBTAINED IN 1920 
In addition to the reduced size of ear and reduced yield of shelled grain 
from plants semivigorous or weak in early vigor as compared with the 
yield of plants strong and apparently healthy in their early stages of 
growth, there is a distinct difference in the quality of the grain. Because 
many of the less vigorous and diseased plants are killed by frost before 
the grain is mature, there are more rotted ears and more light chaffy ears 
in the com produced from semivigorous and weak plants than from 
vigorous plants under comparable conditions. As brought out in previous 
tables, com grown from diseased seed contains fewer strong plants and 
more weak plants than com grown from relatively disease-free seed. 
Consequently, it would be expected that com grown from diseased seed 
would contain more nubbins, more rotted ears, and more light, chaffy ears 
