The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-27
Irnproving cers.

t8 Ok tne DtatGAAcat AnaaG AAt eA&O 1NK~e of the Board of Agriculture of some northern state that farmer had in- creased his average yield. of corn about nine bushels per acre as the re- suit of number of years persistent selection. If this was true then. when practically nothing was known of the principles and of the art of plant breeding, how much more may we expect now with the added know ledge that has been shed upon <, this suhject
 Perhaps no plant is more suscepti- ble to improvement than corn. Tais so easy to recognise the progress made for 1t is written plainly In the com pieted product, the ear, whose char acteristic are so conspicuous.
 Last week some suggestions were made for selecting seed corn in the Icrib. As then stated, selection In the Held Is still more important and we lshould now prepare to dc this intel- lligently next fall Since 1t may not be possible to obtain a sufficient num- Der of ideal ears to plant the entire farm. it is desirable that few dozen tof the best ears he planted in spe- cial seed patch. The function of this seed patch Is to furnish a few still bet ter ears for next years seed patch and in addition the main crop of 1908.
 | In beginipg corn improvement 1t Is l usually desirable to begin with 8 good variety already thoroughly establish ed, that is quite constant in its main characters. Sometimes the so-calied common corn fulfills this requirement. and 1t may then be as good as any named variety, but as rule, 1t must pc objected to common corn that 1t IS quite variable and more or less I mixed disadvantages which usually more than counterbalance its strong point. adaptation to the locality where 1t has been long grown.
 l Starting with pure variety. we should take all possible pains to maintain its purity. Mixing occurs with corn. chiefly through the lodgment of pollen from an Inferior variety or l from mixed or common corn.
 l Pollen can be borne considerable distance on the wind. Hence the seed patch should be located as remote as possible from other corn fields. pre- l feraply 8 quarter of 2 nile distant, Since this Is not always practicable we must utilize other methods of de- Icreasing the amount of foreign poller by separating the seed patch from oth- ec. corn with woods or other ta1i growth, or by planting adjacent- Corn several weeks earlier or several weeks later than the field which we desire to keep pure. This difference in the time ef plantipgf especially if no re- planting is done, will usually make corresponding dissimilarity in the dates when the pollen of the two ya- rieties is flying. Now since the silks Fe receptive at about the same time T Ilat The D0lIAn of fhn flies, this interval will permit the 1 SILKS of our seed patch to be poIlenat- cd from the tassels of the same va- rlety. the silks being thereafter un- aMected by the foreign pollen.
 l Tne influences that make for de. terioration are not wholly without, but also largely within. the variety. The pollen from an interior stalk, that is, barren, or that bears only a nubbin' may become the parent of hundreds of ears which ears may appear among the best in the field. since the influence Of the male parent Is not noticsa ble In field corn the first year. To avoid this we may pull out the tasseis ot all barren or strongly inferior stalks as soon as they show, and before they distribute their pollen or we may cut out these plants entirely.
 | Not only do we need individual ex- cellence in an ear of corn, but strong prepotency or the power of making !ts ohspring like unto itself. There Is no external indication by which we may determine this prepotency. onIy through the offspring themselves may We judge of the prepotency of the pa rent. II the several hundred plants rom 2 single ear are good and uni- form, this Is the strain which we desire to propogate. for these individuals will also probably transmit to their off- spring a similar prepotency
 In order that we may decide on this point it Is desirable that in the seed pateh all of the offsprinE of one ear pc planted together, for example fin one row. It would be well to nla n, the entire seed patch from unsheIied corn, planting one row or two ad. lacent rows from one ear, and tbs next row or set of rows from anothe, ear and so on, Then at harvest tims seed corn would be chiefly seleotad from those rows which show most uni- lorm excelience,-7J. F. Duggar.
 Varieties of Corn.
 The following Is in answer to an inquirer who asks for results of recent tests at Auburn with varieties of corn
 We have considerable accumuIated experimental data on corn but a bull. letin on this subject will not be printed this winter. The edition of our former bulletin on corn is exhausted. Among the varieties which have done well In our tests at Auburn arc Shaw. Me. Mackan's Gourd Seed, Henry Grady Cooke's Prolific. and Mosby's Prolifc I think you would be surer on ordinary land and in, unfavorable seasons fin planting one of the first three varieties mentioned, the other two having more numerous or smaller ears and reouir. ing richer land or more favorable sea sons. J.F. D. | Fertilizers fer Corn In South Alabama
 The inquiry answered below was made with reference to the soils of Ccnecuh county:
 l Unfortunately the issue of an ex- tensive bulletin on corn culture print ed 2. few years ago by the Alabama Fix pertinent Station has been exhausted Generally speaking, corn needs oonsid erable nitrogen or vegetable matter and some phosphate but less phosphate than cotton, and usually potash in ad- dition to that contained in the soil Hence suggest the use of 200 pounds ---...-~.--.@-.as