Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-25

from these pedigreed corn ears TO use lor
the next years planting. One ear of corn
is used for one row. an Ideal being Sc
lected, and the best stalks OF that row are
used for the next years crop, SO mat
there is a continual breeding upward. A
good grain of corn being planted may Esve
a thousand or more children. I have often
counted more than a thousand grains OF
corn on one car, and some OF these cnlidreh
may be better breeders than others. The
grains in the middle of the ear usually
produce better corn than the little ones at
the butts and tips. and the very best pro-
ducers are used for seed growing
Are these corn farms larger"
''There is one near Bloomington. ILL.,,
which has q, 900 acres, and there are others
almost large. I know of one of $1,000
acres and many of a hundred acres and
farms doing well. They sell their seed
corn at from 81 to S per bushel, and as
yet have not been able to raise enough to
supply the demand 1t requires no spe-
cial capital to breed seed corn above that
needed for ordinary farming: the only In
crease is in the original cost of the seed.
When you remember that there are 100000
corn growers in Illinois alone and that
they need about 1.0Oo.o0 bushels of seed
corn every year you can see that the de-
mand for good seed is enormous"
Breeding Associations.
Tell me something about the corn-breed-
ing associations, Mr.. ShameL"
These now found in all of the chief
Corn-growing states. The Illinois Corn
Breeders Association was organized in
June, 1900, and it has been so successful
that the legislature of that state has ap-
propriated $4,000 per annum to expert
ment with corn along the lines laid down
by it, Indiana, Iowa and Kansas have
since formed such associations, and the
movement is spreading to every corn dis
trict of the Union
You speak of pedigreed corn, MIR. Sham
Ell. Do you mean to say that there are
varieties of corn which have their genoa
logical trees?"
Yes, l do. The Illinois Corn Breeders
Association now recognizes seven special
breeds of Indian corn, four yellow and
three white. The yellow corn breeds are
the Leaning. Reds, Yellow Dent, Golden
Eagle and Riley,s Favorite. The three white
are Boone County White, Silver White and
White Superior. These breeds are the re-
suit of careful selection of seeds from the
common white or yellow corn of a certain
community. The farmer has picked out
seed noted for its deep kernels, small cob
and well-filled tips or butts for a number
of years, always planting corn from the
best ears until an ideal seed corn mas peen
obtained
But can you be that the corn from
the best ears of these breeds will always
result in an increased crop over the Or
binary Seed?' l asked.
LAS I have told you, We have examples
of it right along We know it to be fixed
fact. One farmer in southern Illinois, for
instance in order to test the matter plant
ed 800 acres of improved seed. The aver.
age yield of the rest of his farm and or
the other corn fields of his vicinity was
about thirty bushels per acre, while the
average on the 300 acres was more than
sixty bushels per acre. 1t was the same
soil but the improved seed gave him total
gain of 5000 bushels, which netted him
1000 of clean profit from the choice Of
seed alone. Another farmer planted eighty
acres and his increase on that tract was
more than TWEEN ty-five bushels per acre
above that of his fields planted with the
ordinary seed. This man now plants over
1000 acres of improved corn annually, and
he has also thirty breeding fields TO I'M
prove his seed corn stock.
Our Best Corn States.
'rWhat is an average yield of corn to the
acre??" 1 asked.
'If you take the whole United States
said Mr. Shamel 1.-The average yield last
year was 25.5 bushels. Nevertheless. we
have thousands of acres which produce
seventy-fve bushels per acre, and some
produce a hundred bushels and more. The
highest yield ever known was 1S9 bushels
to the acre.
."The banner corn states are Illinois, Iowa.
Kansas Nebraska, Missouri, Ohio and Penn
sylyania. Texas and Indiana also rank
high Last year Michigan and Indiana
three bushels per acre, Illinois a little more
than thirty-two bushels, Pennsylvania
thirty-one bushels and Idaho thirty-four
bushels. The Illinois crop amounted to 264,-
900 900 bushels, that of Iowa to 229, OC0, 900
bushels, Missouri 202, 100000, Kansas and
Nebraska each about 172,0O0OO and In
diana and Texas 142, coo, 900 and 10000 OOO
bushels, respectively. Ohio raises in the
neighborhood of 10000 900 bushels of corn
per year. Kentucky about S0.000,OO0 bushels
and Indian territory 100000 bushels. Our
poorest corn fields are in the south Last
year the average of Florida was less than
ten bushels per acre, while that of Ala
bama and South Carolina was less than f1f-
teen bushels per acre. Last year We had
8S, 100000 acres of corn under cultivation,
and the average yield was good in COM
parison with the past. In 1901 the average
was less than seventeen bushels per acre,
and the range for the past generation has
beer from sixteen to thirty bushels, the
ordinary average being twenty-five or
twenty-six bushels per acre the United
States over.
Our Corn-Raising Competitors.
rs much corn raised outside the United
States?"
Comparatively little The South Amer
lean continent seldom produces as much as
100, 600, 900 bushels annually, and Europe
often has less than 100000. 600. The chief
corn countries of Europe are Italy, Russia
"a
the continent, such as Roumania, Bulgaria
and Servia. There are about 80, 900 OCe
bushels raised in Africa, of which 100000
bushels come from Cape Colony and the
rest from the valley of the Nile. Indeed,
we are now shipping Illonis seed corn to
South Africa. Australia yields from
SO00.0OO to 10000 600 bushels of corn and
Mexico often has as much as 100, 900 600
bushels per annum. The total corn crop of
the world in 1902 was a little more than
5000 0O0,000 bushels, of which more than
25O0.000,0O0 were raised in the United
States"
Results of Corn Breeding.
what have the Agricultural Department
and the corn breeders SO far accomplished
in improving our corn and cornstalks?"
"a great deal,' said Mr.. Shamel 'To
show you what Is possible I would say that
by selecting ears having long shanks, that
Is, the branch which connects the ear with
the stalk, we have increased the length of
the shank nearly two feet in five years
breeding. By selecting ears with tall stalks
we have Increased the height of the stalk
almost three feet. BY selecting ears from
plants with wide leaves we have increased
the average width of the leaf. and by the
product of stalks with narrow leaves we
have decreased the width of leaves By
selecting ears high on the stalk we have