Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1904-12-23
BREEDING AND the SELECTION OF SEED CORN.
BY Hon. A. J. WIMPLE.
The following Brooklyn township
Republics CornCon Beesford, Demember

reproducing themselves in one year.
The live stock breeder, on the Other
hand, pays q great amount of money
for one individual which requires a
mate. In years past little attempt
has been made to Systematically i'm
prove corn. The corn plant was bu,
little understood, in fact. the whole
field of corn development is practically
unexplored. Enough is known, how
ever, to show the boundless possibili.
ties and in general way to direct the
work Of the breeders to some definite
end.
Following will be given an outline
Of the methods now in use. These
are the results Of the experience Of the
past and study of the present. There
are two grades of seed corn-the high.
ly bred seed and the stock seed. The
highly bred seed can never exist in
large quantities and will consequently
never enter into the commercial
transactions Of the corn breeder to
any great extent.
BY highly. bred seed is meant seed
that represents the best of the im.
proved types. In other words those
ears which as nearly as possible rep
resent the ideal ear. As every ear is
different from every other ear. there
can never be . large amount of such
ears. However, this very fact of wide
variation makes the improvement of
varieties possible. If there was nc
variation from which selections could
be made there could be no improve
mont. It is ty selecting those ears
which vary in the direction desired
and discarding the poorer ears that a
general advance can be made
The stock seed is the corn one gen.
Grafton removed from the highly. bred
seed. The corn breeder will concen.
trate his main effort In the production
of highly.bred seed. From this seed
large quantities of stock seed may be
grown and sold to the farmers. This
seed possesses nearly all the good
qualities of the highly. bred seed and
differs only in the fact that individual
selection by the corn breeder has ceased.
It has not been the practice Of the
farmers Of this locality 10 import seed
corn except when by some climatic
cause the corn crop has been q local
failure and the supply has been too
email When seed has been procured
from other states it has in most cases
been unsatisfactory for the reason that
corn is very sensitive to climatic
changes and in most cases the crop
from such seed failed to mature. In
securing seed, the factor of greatest
Importance is the purchase of that corn
which will give the largest yield and Of
the best quality.
The acre Is the unite in corn produc.
ton and therefore that seed is the best
which gives the largest yield per acre.
Carefully selected seed of pure bred
varieties gives the largest yield. hence.
the important question for the farmer
who for any reason must purchase
seed corn is not one of cost, but Of
quality. It will prove far more prof
table to pay three or four dollars for q
bushel Of seed corn which will ger
inmate we'll and insure an even sand
and large yield than to accept an in.
ferior grade, even though the first
cost be very low. Purchasing seed corn
in the ear offers the farmer the surest
and safest way to secure seed which
will prove satisfactory. The purchaser,
however, must not expect too much.
Good ears of corn. those approaching
perfection, are few in number. Seed
ears. such a. are exhibited at corn