The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1912-10-04
SEED SELECTION.
BY A. L. Garrison, Chief Feed and
Seed INSPECTOR.

OSSu iHSpeClOT.
During the tour or the Agricultural
Special Train over the State, | made
the statement to thousands of farmers
that there was no time devoted to the
crop that paid better than seed selec-
ton, and that there is just as much de-
velopment in field seed as there is
IN live stock. an, we'll aware of the
fact that a great many did not credit
this statement with its true sisnl6-
canoe, so | am going to follow up NV
line OF argument with ~corroborative
evidence. | will try most respectful
W call your attention to Bulletin No.
81 OF the Virginia Department of Ag-
riculture, which has an article I'm
prove Your Seed Corn"
The farmer should give as much
care and attention to the Improve
ment of his seed corn as he does to
the Improvement Of his live stock. It
VIII pay him ust as much. No farmer
wa is to breed from live stock that
mas a larger mixture of scrub blood.
Neither should he plant seed corn that
a a large mixture of pollen from
nubbins and barren stalks, for this
kind of corn will produce nubbins and
barren stalks just as certainly as
scrub blood will shw from breeding
stock with scrub blood in them.
Then why mt plant a seed corn plot
off to itself and breed up your seed
corr year after year? In a few years
you Will increase the yield of your
corr crop ten bushels or more Der
acre without any extra cost.
The simplest kind of a seed corn
plot is one handled in the following
manner: In the first place, select the
best ears that you can find with which
to plant it; select ears of the type
that will yield the most in the average
season; ears of medium length with
a deep kernel, with straight, even
rows, and which are well filed at butt
and tip. Then test these ears to see
if they will gerninate well. Then
plant a plot from these ears Just as
though you were planting an ordinary
field, and throughout the year give
it good, ordinary cultivation. If there
is possibility that you may not give
a plot like this good care, it had bet
ter be located on one side of the big
field than by itself. The tine to give
especial attention to his sort of a plot
Is in the fall, at seed corr picking
time. By all means this crop must
be harvested and the corr dried and
stored in the best manner possible.
This sort of a seed corn plot Is not
truly a breeding plot. It is just sim
ply a plot of ground planted from the
best ears, given good cultivation and
to which special attention is given at
harvest time. The advantage of this
sort OF seed plot to most farmers sim
ply is that when they have a particu-
lar plot that they call their seed corn
plot, they are more likely to give spe-
clal attention at harvest time to pick
ing their seed at the right time and
properly caring for it than when all
the corn is in a big field together. The
benefit is more from proper harvest
ing than from any true breeding. In
this sort of a plot the character of
the stalks nay also be taken into con
sideration in picking seed.
A breeding plot takes but little
more time and trouble than the or
binary plot, and in a few years pro-
duces much better results. In its sim
plicity it is as follows; A number of
the best ears are collected as above.
The ears r numbered and each ear
is planted in a row to itself, This, of
course, takes extra time and trouble
at planting time, but is time for which
in the end good pay Is sure to be re-
ceived, Men who try this ear-to-a-row
planting for the first time are always
~astonished. One row, for instance,
that was planted from what appeared
to be the best ear, may not do at all
well. The plants may be n~oticeably
shorter than those of the surrounding
rows, and yield less at harvest time.
Another row may tassel out three
or four days before any of the other
rows and produce al earlier matur-
ing crop. A man who will observe
this ear-to-row corn breeding will
learn much, and receive good pay
for tine so spent. Ordinary care is
given until tasseling time; then Just
as the tassels are coming out, go over
every other row of the entire plot
and pull out all the tassels. It may
be necessary to go over the entire
plot several times in order to get all
the tassels of every other row. In
the fall, seed corn will be selected
only from the rows which were 0etas-
seled. This is important, for it has
been proved beyond all doubt tibet in.
bred corn, that is, corn whose ears
have been pollenated by pollen from
the same plant or from brother plants,
will not produce nearly as much as
cross-bred corn.
When harvest time comes, the prod.
uct of these detasseled ears is
weighed separately, and it is deter,
mined which ear yielded best and pro
duced the most sound corr of 4 good
type. OF course, it is from such rows
that the seed for future seed corr
breeding plots will be selected. The
seed corr for planting the entire croI
Of the next year may be selected from
any of the rows IN the plot; but pref