Mexico weekly ledger., 1913-02-13
Stock and
~ Fam News


> Mr.. Mitchell White
. Dear sir: At your request l an
y writing this article on my experience
, IN corn breeding.
. Il was while studying Bulletin i0C
y IT Illinois. commonly known rs 9Th
; Results OF Ten Generations o. Corn
: Breeding that / was first interested
> enough in this worksto undertake II
|. myself
We had a small patch out by the
, barn, quarter OF a mile from any 9th
> er corn field that ! picked for my
: plot Then l went to our seed. which
, we had picked in The fall. and select
, ed IS Of the very best ears that /
, could find. tested them, and from
> these ] picked Is OF the best for my
, seed. as this was the number Of
:. rows vide my plot was, plus n on
/. each side.
When planting time came. one day
/. after dinner I went out with the IS
. cars OF corn md a hoe and planted
each row Off OF a different ear not
. such a task as you would think -
about 3 or 4 grains in a Hill. hills
about 80 inches apart. as the ground
was very rich.
When II came up, what a fine
stand I had. After I had plowed It
once ! thipned each hill down TO two
stalks per hill. so the stand would
be uniform.
Very soon after it came out of
the ground Won could begin to notice
the difference between different rows
some grew much faster than others
some looked more healthy. so to
speak. and others, weakly.
As the season progressed. the DIFF
ference became more marked, till
when fall came you would have won
dered what was a matter with that
piece of corn If you had been passing
by. There were rows that the stalks
were tall, others that were the re-
verse: some that the ears were high
on the stalks, others that were much ,
lower; some rows were apparently Z
twice as thick as the rows next to
It, due to the tIlerst commonly called
suckers) that it possessed.
Indeed, it was a peculiar looking
piece Of corn. But the yields were I
more peculiar. I will give them here I
in lbs. Of corn actually harvested. TIL I
rows were Sc hills long and, as Ir
said before, about 30 inches apart. Z
The highest yielding rows weighed
80 1-2 lbs; the row to the north n
yielded SO lbs, and the one TO the h
south rs lbs, so you see how the y
yields ran. The most striking results a
were found in rows Is and Is. No. Z
Is yielded only Al lbs. the lowest in
the plot and No. 16 weighed out &c G
lbs. the second highest, II
My plot was twice as long for 1911. n
The seed ] had picked from a few OF r,
the very highest yielders of the year. nj
had it started fine when NJ
sad for the corn and myself. I took e.,
down sick and 1t was left on the hill r.
side to burn up, which It almost did.
1t was remarkable after all the suf- 4,
that It endured for the lack nj
blowing and rain. TO see how much M
some OF the strains stood h,
he drouth than others. The high n
OF 1910 looked as though Il m
was treated better than the others. or
took my first peep at It again y,
4 was away to school in m
he fall and father gathered it for "a
ne and saved a few OF the best ears us
could find for me to work with Ia
his season -,
But he did not weigh and keep an IN
'ecords Of the rows that they were IN
.a'ed from. But, after all, the sea
'on Of 1911 was not lost entirely. ss
This season the results we're very H.
much the same as those Of 1910 only r.
ess marked As the previous work of 70
election had done a great deal To- "a
yard elimination of the poor strains. ho
election work in the same way as en- n
up an apple. The first time YOU T.,
ut It, you divide it in halves; the n.
ext time in quarters, etc, till at last N,
here is none TO divide, so to
peak. So it is with this work. ffre
ollowed long enough; elimination will m,
ct 10 the point where it isn't practl. NJ,
to follow n more. n,
But back to the results of 1912 ~.
s ! said, the results were less mark. :.
d than those of 1910 with the excep-
on Of 2 or 3 ears that l had picked q,
ON the regular field. The most q,
-rlking results this time was in ar
2S, 20 and 80; Is yielded ss M
20 yielded 2s lbs and 90 weighed
Ut rs lbs But I will tell you how "a.
part Of this happened. The plot oh
-st year was near the chicken hons ri,
nd they ate all the down corn. At h.
asst II Of No. 20 had fallen down %,
ut the results are all the same to in
e as I want a corr that viii stand
p. IN
Just a few more remarks and | win 90
ose my observations and those that
have studied after are that there is tr,
correlation that has been found so an
r. between any characteristic OF the be
r or stalk and the yielding power m,
That plant And the only practical yU
ay that there is Of increasing the 10
Gliding power OF corn, is testing II n,
II in these ears tO-the-row test he
ID getting results by elimination. In
neral, it has been found that Dir
low corn is not the highest yielder, 81
rather a little coarser type Of "a.
I'm with plenty OF size and length. MI
tier all. show corn should be a Q "a
'nary aim Of a corn breeder, as It in,
benefits a few, and does not ,.,
lie mp corn in the wagon bed OF the h,
farmer. e.
ibis has grown very long SO an,
lall close, u anyone thinks | have ~,
reached facts in this letter thai nv
n be gotten by testing single ears. at
win say to him, go thor and do an