
WHAT IS 
HYBRID CORN? 
If a hog producer crossed a pure bred Poland 
China boar with a pure bred Chester White sow, | 
the pigs would be hybrids. If he crosses a pure bred 
Duroc-Jersey boar with a pure bred Tamworth sow, 
the pigs would also be hybrids. But they would be 
different hybrids. 
It’s the same with corn. When pure bred strains 
of corn are crossed you get hybrid corn. The kind 
of hybrid corn you get depends on which pure bred 
strains are crossed. Some crosses of pure bred 
strains make desirable hybrids. Other crosses of 
pure bred strains make undesirable hybrids. So 
while hybrid corn is defined as a cross of pure bred 
(or inbred) lines of corn, there is more to it than 
merely crossing different strains. 
The illustrations at the right tell how the corn 
breeder goes about the job of producing a desirable 
- hybrid. — 
The picture at 
the left shows 
how most com- 
mercial hybrid 
seed corn is pro- 
duced — first by 
crossing inbred 
strains to make 
**single cross 
hybrids’’—then 
by crossing two 
single cross 
hybrids to make 
a “double 
cross’? hybrid. 
Sometimes an 
inbred is cross- 
ed with a single 
cross hybrid and 
a hybrid so pro- 
duced is called 
a ‘‘three way 
hybrid.”’ 4 

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