New YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 273 
given, that tip kernels make good seed. It may be said, however, 
that the general introduction of corn planting machinery makes it 
‘advisable to reject over-large or over-small kernels, notwithstand- 
ing their approximately equal value as seed, so that even planting 
may be secured. Unevenness of stand has been proven one of the 
great factors in lowering yields of corn. | 
Interesting observations*” were also made upon the use, as seed, 
of kernels which themselves showed peculiarities in size, shape or 
color, or which were from ears peculiar in some respect. These 
studies led to no practical results, but show with what care every 
variation from the normal was investigated. 
Many germination tests!’ of corn- were made, as of the seeds 
of all the other field and garden crops; and the great importance 
of thus testing the vitality and strength of the seeds to be used on 
the farm was repeatedly shown. Several simple forms of appa- 
ratus!® were devised for such testing of seed, one of which, the 
Geneva (or Station) Seed Tester, has been considerably used else- 
where. By means of germination tests the increased value given 
to seed corn by kiln-drying the seed” was brought out, in experi- 
ments continued through two years. In the first year’s tests, when 
the drying was done some time before the testing, the kiln-dried 
corn germinated earlier and better and gave stronger plants than 
similar corn taken direct from the crib. The kiln-dried kernels 
also gave much better results than the others when subjected 
to, adverse influences, such as extreme temperatures before the 
tests. In the second season, when the drying was done imme- 
diately before the testing, there was no difference in percentages of 
germination in the testers, but the kiln-dried kernels gave 80 per ct. 
of plants when sown in the soil, while the undried kernels gave only 
2Q per ct. 
Attention was repeatedly called to the principles involved and 
methods used in seed selection and preservation and to the losses 
resulting from the use of seed from inferior parents and from 
the absence of hills or plants required by a perfect stand. These 
factors, emphasized and put into practice by the corn breeders of 
the Middle West, are to-day astonishingly increasing the yields of 
maize. 
7 Rpt. '2:40-57 .G1883))- 
* Rpts. 2:50, 63, 65 (1883); 3:118-124 (1884) ; 4:84-01, 95 (1885). 
Rpt. 2-50; 07 (1603). 
* Rpts. 4:95 (1885); 5:44-46 (1886). 
