Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1902-01-25
FARMER AND PLANTER
ABOUT CORN BREEDING.
Remarkable Discoveries Have hccn
Made In the Improvement OF
Corn Varieties.

A. L. w., New Windsor, Ill., sends
the subioincd queries:
"What is meant by the terms corn
breeding as commonly employed by
the experiment station men2 What
is the object of corn breeding? With
what varieties of corn have you ex-
perimented with view to improving
their chemical compositions Please
mention the varieties best adapted to
conditions in this part of the state "
During the last six or eight years
remarkable discoveries and progress
have been made in all branches Of ag-
riculture, and among the most inn
portant discoveries made during that
period was that Of DR., c. G. Hopkins,
of the Illinois experiment station,
who proved by thorough experiments
that corn could be not only much inn
proved physically by the intelligent
and persistent selection of the best
ears of a variety, but that its chem
ical composition could be controlled
in large measure by planting seed
from ears a part of whose kernels
had been chemically analysed. These
processes of improvement in corn
have very properly been referred to
and become generally known as corn
breedings," which may be used in
substantially the same sense as ami
NAL breeding. In breeding animals
the same general principles are fol-
lowed which have brought about the
improvement of corn. Epitomized,
corn breeding means the careful and
persistent selection of the best ears
of any variety which it is desired to
improve planting the seed under the
most favorable conditions possible to
provide, and giving the plants the
best of culture. Ultimately this pro-
cess will evolve corn less prone to
very and truer to type than the orig
inal stock and its prepotency will be
much greater. Certainly there will
always be variation in corn regard
less of the purity of its breeding, but
the longer it is bred pure the greater
its prepotency and hence, the more
certainty there will be that it will
produce after its kind
1t is well known that there is no
variety of corn which, under average
conditions, will produce a very large
per cent, Of ears true to type. 1t fol-
lows, therefore, that the type has not
been firmly fixed. Corn breeders are
trying to fix the type of the several
breeds, and that they will succeed is
no longer predetermined. Results al
ready obtained prove conclusiyely
that the continued application of the
principles governing the initial work
will produce the ends sought. Aside
from the improvement of the physical
characteristics of corn a great OF i'm
portant work has been accomplished
in the way of improving its chemical
composition.
Corn breeding has as its chief OBJ
ject the adaptation of the cereal to
special purposes. There is a growing
demand for a corn having a higher
starch composition than the corns
commonly grown. Likewise there is
a demand among stocltmcn for a corn
having a higher protein content than
the average corn Of the present time.
Corn for the manufacture of starch,
alcohol, glucose and sirup should con
tain a high percentage of caloohy-
drates, and the value q corn to be
used as feed for grc5fng animals or
manufactured int corn flour for hui
man food will certainly be enhanced
if its protein content is increased.
Experiments were conducted at
this station the past season to in
crease the percentage of protein in
Riley's Fayorite (yellow) and to de-
crease that element in Silvermine. Of
200 ears of each variety only % of
each were selected for the expert
ments. This gave sufficient seed for an
acre of each variety. In Riley's Fa-
vorite the ear highest in protein
Analysed 1913 per cent. Ten kernels
we're tested and the remainder of the
ear planted, They are showing the
lowest percentage Of proteinanalyzed
11.90 per cent In ease of the Silver
mine, seven per cent. of protein was
found to be the lowest and 95f per
cent. the highest used in the expert
ment TO decrease the protein con
tent.
Perhaps our correspondent would
find no better varieties for his sec
ton of the state than Silvermine,
Riley's Favorite and Pride of the
North, though Leaning doubtless
would prove quite as satisfactory as
any of them.-DeWitt c, Wing, of
Sibley Experiment Station, in Breed
ers' Gazette.
SHEEP ON THE FARM.