The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-09-12
SELECTING SEED CORN.
There Is Only One Proper Way to Ds
1t and That Is to Select 1t In the Field.

There Is Only One Proper Way to Ds
1t and That Is to Select 1t In the Field.
l presume, says writer in the Breed
er's Gazette, that no class of farmers
are better prepared to appreciate the
importance of seed-brecding than are
stock-breeders. From seeds spring all
important organic life on the farm.
They, therefore, in their development
become the measure of the cost of ami
NAL growth and in large degree of its
character. However successfully a
farmer may breed his steers, he is
doomed to failure if his crops are of low
capacity. The pounds of beef per acre
is measured not mainly by his skill as
a stock-breeder. but more by mis- skill
as plant-grower. 1t follows that ouI
genius o f farmers should expend its
first or chief force upon the plant rather
than upon the animal. Few men pos.
sessed of one absorbing purpose but
what fail to give proper attention to
other important factors in life. This
general truth is not without its illus
tration in the ranks OF stock-breeders,
although no class should appreciate
potent seed more. Very nearly the
round of the laws of heredity in animal
life are found with analogous relations
in plant life. l need not review them
to the readers of the Gazette nor mar
shall supporting evidence, for assertion
of these laws is the equivalent of evil
dence to breeder who has familiarized
himself with the laws that govern sue
cession of organic life.
Hereditary qualities may be fixed in
corn by selection, or may be produced
by crossing and fixed by selection.
shall contine my statements to selection
as means of improvement, and mainly
to those phases of the question that will
be suggestive and of value at the COM
ing harvest.
One right way exists for corn selec-
ton, and only one right way; and that
way is to select the corn in the field and
from the plant at a date early enough
to determine the character Of the whole
plant. The Western practice, though
wrong, measures tho value of the corn
crop almost wholly by the ears pro-
duccd. This demands plant that
gives the maximum amount of ear and
the minimum amount of stalk. BY Sc
lecting the car from the stalk, and by
no other method. can this result be Sc
cured. The ratio of seed to stem is as
variable for corn as it is for other
plants. The seed is but q fraction-a
part of the whole life-and the ratio OF
the parts vary in the plant as in the an
imal, and are as susceptible of being
fixed as are the parts of an animal.
have carried out trials in selection OF
seed corn for several years. will not
in all these cases prolong articles with
tables of results, and in accordance with
this design state that by weight l find
that the ratio of ear to stalk is very
variable; that the largest ear is not nee
essarily found on the largest stalk, and
is not usually so found q am consider
ing plants within given Variety; that
an ear from tall stalk reproduces 9
tall stalk and from short stalk is re,
produced short stalk, and that ears Sc.
lected from short stalks produce more
corn per acre than do ears selected from
tall stalks. The yield Of stalks is on
the reverse order. The total crop is
quite as large from the seed of the tall
stalks as it is from the seed of the short
stalks-really larger. When corn is
grown for ensilage different Lolicy in
seed selection should be pursued from
that advisable when selection is made
for corn grown for it's ear alone.