HYBRID SEED CORN 
In some of our catalogs of the past we were not in favor of Hybrid corn. Seven or eight 
years ago we spent a lot of time and money experimenting with Hybrid corn, which was then 
pretty much of a failure, and it was not until 19 32 that the best Hybrids were better than the 
best open-pollinated strains. 
HYBRID CORN NOT NEW 
The foundation work for making Hybrid corn 
was laid about 1900 by Beal and others who real¬ 
ized the value of selection from the male as well 
as the female side and worked with the possi¬ 
bilities of varietal crosses. The rediscovery of 
Mendel’s “Law of Inheritance” in 1900 stimulated 
inbreeding and crossing to study the inheritance 
of certain favorable characteristics. Shull in 
1908 and East in 1909 published information on 
Hybrid vigor in corn. Shull outlined a method 
for the commercial utilization of Hybrid corn 
which differs but little from that used today. 
The essential features were: First, isolation 
of desirable inbred lines which breed true for 
the character they possess. Second, the termi¬ 
nation of these lines most productive in crosses. 
Third, the utilization of superior crosses in the 
commercial production of Hybrid corn. 
Not until 1921 was the first seed of a double- 
cross Hybrid produced commercially. We are 
not originators of Hybrid eorn nor is any other 
firm in the Corn Belt States. This honor, which 
several firms seem to want to claim, does not 
belong to a Corn Belt producer but to the little 
te of Connecticut, where East, Hayes and 
had carried on their breeding program and 
loped Hybrids that compared favorably with 
'^est open-pollinated varieties. 
orge Carter of Connecticut had the distinc- 
of growing the first field for commercial 
auction of double-crossed corn. This was a 
cross of both white and yellow inbreds, lines 
which produced a mixture of white and yellow 
grains. 
By the way, we paid $1.00 per grain two years 
ago for an inbred which came from Connecticut 
and we found it was money well spent. $10 a 
bushel for corn looks high for seed; but, when 
one pays $1 a grain, it really comes high. 
Many of these experimental Hybrids were not 
sufficiently productive to produce profitably,.but 
the inbreeding programs were greatly expanded 
during the ’20s and early ’30s until a sufficient 
number of seed lines were available for commer¬ 
cial production to advance rapidly. 
Now the best commercial Hybrids excel by far 
the best open-pollinated, not only in yield, but 
in many other ways. Thus, for twenty-five years 
hybrid corn was gradually building up a sub¬ 
stantial background that was to prove so impor¬ 
tant in its further development. 
New inbreds and new crosses will make to¬ 
day’s best Hybrids out-of-date in the next three 
years. In one of our catalogs written several 
years ago, we stated why we were not then ad¬ 
vising the use of Hybrid corn but that there were 
great possibilities in it; and we again say today 
there are still greater possibilities yet in the 
production of new varieties of Hybrid corn. To¬ 
day we recommend the use of the best Hybrids 
as they have now reached the point where the 
farmer who does not plant Hybrid corn uses 
poor judgment. 
“Hand pollinat¬ 
ing inbreds to 
make single a n d 
double crosses for 
the production of 
Hybrid corn. This 
shows work on an 
early inbred, later 
inbreds shown on 
each side. We 
used around 30,- 
000 bags for this 
w o r k this year 
w h i e h requires 
considerable care¬ 
ful hand w o r k , 
but insures y o u 
perfect Hybrid 
w li e n you b u y 
from Kelly Seed 
Company.” 
