Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1913-08-15
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sufficient stamina in all the seeds to
reproduce like the parent The corn
reverted not only to the one-eared but
to the eight-rowed type.
This is one of the mysteries that
will have to be solved, no doubt be-
fore a highly-productive two-eared
type of corn can be raised with the
Pqualities Of the parent so fixed that
it can be relied upon to maintain a
big average yield. 1t may be due to
weakness of inbreeding.
Some of the ears weighed over a
pound each, making over two pounds
to the stalk. If this could be aver
aged for an entire corn field it would
yield over ten tons to the acre.
Such may seem an exaggeration or
an impossibility, but it SO only in
comparison with what we have been
accustomed to. Even if by judicious
| selection of two-eared seed each
year still the type could not be fixed
SO as to produce even yields of the
maximum amount, yet if it gave an
increase of 20 per cent. as it did in
my experiment, the return would be
big one for what is involved. 1t
does not imply added cost, in the pro.
duction, but only a greater care and
interest in ones work.
! Another thing to be kept in mind
in breeding up type of corn for high
er productiveness is that the number
of kernels to the ear and their size
has an important bearing on the yield
of grain.
A corn expert once figured out that
if the productfveness Of corn could
be increased by only one kernel to
| each ear, on the entire crop it would
| mean a gain of so tons OF grain!
Even though the figures be not abso-
| lutte there is no gainsaying that the
increase of yield would be very big
amount in the aggregate. The point
is made very clearly in the accom-
panying photographs which show
eight, ten and twelve-rowed ears of
corn. Each ear was exactly the same
in weight, being IL ounces each. The
eight-rowed ear gave seven ounces of
grain, and had a cob weighing four
ounces, the ten-rowed ear weighed up
eight ounces of grain and had q
three ounce cob. The twelve-rowed
ear gave 81k ounces of grain. A diff
ference of an ounce and a half to the
ear Of actual grain is an appreciate
gain worth striving for. But that
does not mean that such is the limit
of the gain to be obtained. It would
No 70 ryiRI &r o%% 0ir 81,
fold that increase.
The chief requisite to substantial
progress in the growing of a more
productive corn must be the skill and
judgment of the worker. The first
essential is no doubt seed selection,
but this does not merely mean the
picking out of the best looking ears
either at harvest time or in the husk-
ing. It is necessary that the grower
shall watch the corn from the first
start of the seed and through the
growing
Vigor, productiveness and early
| ripening should be noted, not merely
In the mind, but in q book, and the
stalks should be marked so that they
can be identified at any time MY
method is to snip out little bits of
tin; punch hole through them at
one side and put a bit Of thin wire
through and twist this loosely about
the stalk when marking it. On the
tin / scratch a number with sharp
awl. There is not likely to occur
any accident that can destroy this
tag or erase the figures.