The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-10-30
Raleigh, N. G., October so, 1900.
INDoLENCE OF THE CORN PLANT.

]
Statistics show that more than
half of mankind even die before
reaching the age of 20 years. And
., how many that nature permits to
live are dismal failures in the strTg-
gle of life burdens on the ittest of
mankind. And the ffttest, and
healthiest, mentally, morally, and
physically, only, of mankind, even,
should be allowed to produce off
spring. Clearly many human beings,
as well as animals and plants, are born
for naught. There certainly is an
average loss in all kinds of seeds of
fully p per cent, which fail to ger
inmate, from inherent weakness, due
to barrenneSS and it's attendant de-
generacy. Much less than half the
seeds of many vegetables ever ap-
pear IN the form of d productive
plant. Indeed it is not going too far
to state that in the case of old de-
generate sorts, which have passed
the zenith of their productiveness
that not more than one seed in ten
ever natures productive plants. The
surplus (nature's manifest weak
lings) being destroyed by thinning,
for the ultimate good of the what
few strong vigorous plants (nature's S
favOrites) there is in the planting
This strict law of life is universal
throughout nature.
Prof. L. H. Bailey, in his book
"Survival of the Unlike, " says that
the woods of Maine had their aris-
tOcracy, but the axe of the woodman
laid them low, and these lords of the
wilderness are seen no more. Many
plants to all appearances, start
equally. But they end unequally,
by having received different prOduc-
tive and unprOductive impulses from
preceding generations. And from
my experience as a cereal breeder,
[ fully believe this to be "a fact. The
great naturalist, Darwin, in his
book Origin of Species :" "A natural
law which governs all organic beings
in a state of nature, is, that the
strongest live and produce offspring
and the weakest die without
progeny.
A fierce struggle for u chance to
mature, is therefore inevitable, with
the race very much in favor of ma
ture's s endowed.
To discover that many of the unfit,
or natures weakings, survive a
great deal longer, and more persist
entity, than might be supposed, we
have only to look around us to see the
number of imperfect, unprOductive
plants; how many scrub animals !;
how many incapable, outcast human
beings. During my % years expe-
rience as a corn breeder have con-
cluded that there are as many drOnes
in corn field prOpOrtiOnately, as
/ there is in hives of bees or cOmmuni-
/ ties of men, And [ believe that the
! drOnes (stalks which are lazy or bar
rem and which produce nothing at
all in the way of grain, or at least but
a nubbin), do more through the habit
/ of barrenness and it's attendant de-
I generacy (dry rot, smut, low ger
minating power, etc., to reduce our
average yield Of corn than poor cul-
tivation, poor soil, and unfavorable
/ seasons combined.
Many will say that this is a strong
claim. But the writer is very sure
/ that the germ of certain individual
/ grains of corn (wheat, oats, broom
corn, etc, as welD has been endowed
by nature through the variations OF
preceding generations, with pecu-
liarly vigorous, productive prOpen-
sity, which has the capacity to pro
duce Gf not hampered by inferior
society maximum quantity of the
highest quality, while other individ-
ual grains from the same ear, clearly
natures weaklings Cor thoroughbred
scrubs) inherit a tendency to bar
renness, or scanty production, and
which only rob the more productive
plants of soil nutrition, to waste on
their indolent degenerate organism.
And what is still worse, as regards
the yield of the whole field, they
through the agency of pollenation
association Gf their pollen be allowed
to mature) not only produce a nub-
bin, or nothing themselves, but help
to reduce the size of the ear of every
other productivity inclined stalk in
the field, by the cross fertilizing, de-