The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1908-01-09

e%ction: this, of course, coupled wit
right methods of culture. A singl
paragraph in a recent bulletin of tn
State Agricultural Experiment Sta
ton describes the process with ad
mirable directness:
The method of breeding a certain
variety of corn, as practiced at thi
station, is to select the choicer ear
from the general field at the begin
ming. Later the breeding ears ar
largely selected from the highes
yielding rows in the previous year
ear test. The kernels of each breed
ing ear are planted in separate rows
care being taken to mate the ears
that is, airs which are of like type
and which should cross we'll, from
the highest producing rows. are
planted side by side. Every other
row is detasseled, while the tassels
are allowed to develop on the alter
nate rows. the plants of which be.
come the male parents of the seed
ears, which are selected from the
detasseled or mother rows.
This process, continued from year
to year, has just the effect made ia
miliar in scientific livestock breed
ing improvement in quality and in
the power of increase Judge of re-
suits by studying the progress made
in four years at Manhattan, from
1903 to 1906. Remember, please,
that the average corn yield of Kan
sas fields in the ten-year period fol-
lowing 1896 was but twenty-one
bushels and a half per acre, or con-
siderably less than the general aver
age of all the corr growing states.
OF forty selected varieties cultivated
in the college fields, with scientific
attention, the average yield for the
three year period of 1904-6 was 30
80 bushels per acre
For the two-year period of 1866
this average had rised to 1888 BUSH
els; while 1906, taken alone, when
the fullest effect of continued selec-
ionwould appear showed an average
yield for the forty varieties of 73.14
bushels per acre. The lowest yield
of one variety was As bushels per
acre; the highest 81. This yield,
mind you, is measured in air dried,
corn.
Visionary, and impossible of adop-
ton in general practice by SO hide
custom-tied a class as the
'armers? Tut, tut, Nothing of the
These schools, not in Kansas
but in every rural Western
tate, are sending their students
rom the experimental station fields
the farms. What's more the "old
lands,' the "hardheads," are taking
Ip the idea as a sponge takes up
Every farmers institute,
nd every crossroads where two or
hree are met together in the name
f the Almighty Dollar, has become
very hotbed of agitation for the
lew cult. Although it is so new a
It's practical effects in Kansas
re a%ppreciable over the whole state.
Well, so much for the one crop,
orn. The evolution of the corn in
ustry in this last score of years is
airly typical Of the progress in
.rming in all its branches. Wheat
rowing. potato growing, fruit
rowing, dairying, market garden
ny, high grade stock breeding all
f these have gained a real indus
rial rank not below that of corn
arming. And there is the story of
Italia a story of marvel; and there
the wizardry of the art of dry
which. though not ten
ears old, has brought a teeming,
prosperous life to the high plains
ountry heretofore an absolute fruit
ass waste.
Now, then, if land prices have risen
through the last ten years, under
he spell of these transformed con-
is that fact not to be under
TODD in the East save upon the n.y.
'othesis of boom? Isn't it Gu
rely rational that values should rise
nd rise until they'have come to a
air balance with the productive ca
A Net Profit OF SIS an Acre
The end of the upward movement
not yet. To he sure. there are
nut few of these farms which are
oday able to show in practice the
he rich returns demonstrated at the
experiment. station. Enough has
zen done, though, by the practical
'ioneers, in the application of the
,ow methods tn n that fbaco