Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 203, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1913 — IMPROVING the CORN CROP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IMPROVING the CORN CROP

By HORACE MARKLEY.

IT leisurely an amazing fact that the corn crop of the states should average year after year only about 30 bushels to the acre. The acreage planted Is Increased by millions from year to year. Vast areas of virgin territory are constantly being brought under cultivation. It is a matter of record that many farmers raise 100, 200, some as high as 300 bushels to the acre, yet the average for the entire crop is never increased. Is it likely that there is anything wrong with the government figures? I do not think so. There is as much care given as is possible to insure accuracy, and I daresay that many farmers, even if they raise more than 30 bushels to the acre, will feel satisfied that the figures are correct from his knowledge of what the average yield is in his district. The farms are tilled by a pretty good type of farmer,- on the whole, hard working, and fairly Intelligent The best that we have been able to produce of the true American, and for the m6st part the best of the sturdy sons of the soil from many foreign lands. We have a national department of agriculture that has been the envy and the copy of the world, which is in a sense, a farmer’s university, and the soie aim and purpose of which has been and is, to .make better farmers. For a generation or more, it has striven by study, experiment and printer’s ink lavishly disseminated, to educate the farmer and bring him to a higher level as an efficient tiller of the soil. Through the . work of its many professors it has presumably told the farmer much about seeds, and soils, and methods of cultivation, and of protection from Insect pests, an infinite variety of details about the vital facts concerning his business, yet the result reipalns the same, so far as corn is concerned, year after year—thirty bushels to the acre. In almost avery state In the Union there is now, and has long been, an agricultural experiment station, working in co-operation with the federal department of agriculture and hand and hand with the farmers of the state to educate him. The stations are equipped with, professors, and experts, maay of them of the highest authority in the land, vast tracts are under experimental cultivation, they have been planning, working, testing soils and seeds, and fertilizers, to aid the farmer in the exercise of economy # agd the growing of better crops. The net results of their labors they are constantly disseminating by means of lectures, and correspondence, and bulletins, free, for all who would avail of such —yet the net result after all these years is an average of 30 bushels to the acre for com \ , The agricultural colleges have gone even further than this. They have in many instances not been content to work and lecture and print the results of their labors for the benefit of progressive farmers, they have been militant in their Work, have instituted campaigns of education by sending out some of the professors on special trains, right in the heart of farming districts, and giving the farmer heart-to-heart talks, and object lessons in better farming methods; telling him about soils, methods of cultivation, seed selection, inviting them freely to ask questions, to the end that he may become a more enthusiastic worker and '’raise better orops. Although this baa. been going on for years and beyond question many harve profited by it, yet the average yield for dOrn the past year was Jfcst the same—3o bushels. s'U.-. 5

Is it possible that the present type of farmer has reached the limit of his capacity to improve? It may be so. At any rate, besides all this there is an agricultural press, of vast proportions throughout the states, working to educate the farmers and lfeep him posted on everything that may be of help to him in his business. Many farmers take several such publications. Then again, the tools that are available to the farmer for his work are far superior to what • they have been in the past, and are improved every year. Is it possible that the farmer is not as a class taking advantage of the best tools for his work? . ' What is the first thing to be done in the growing of better corn crops? I think, in seed selection. There is nothing startling or original in this, I admit; it* is the doctrine thatthas long been preached, but I would simply add my testimony from the results of my experiments with the hope that it may lead, others to try along the same lines. There is nothing difficult about it, there is certainly nothing costly; it amounts to simply a little more thorough and intelligent heart interest in one’s labor. To secure a corn that will yield tenfold what he has been accustomed to getting the farmer must breed for results. He has got to improve the corn In the same way that hp would raise the standard of his stock or his flocks. And once he has secured a type of corn that shows increased productiveness, he must try to keep it pure, avoid inbreeding and maintain its stamina, with the same watchfulness and care that all breeding demands. It does not require a scientific education to grow more and better corn,, or better crops of any kind. It does require brains. One of the first things to be done is to get out of the slip-shod ways of working. Corn, especially, is one of the most abused crops of the farm. Because it will' grow and give some returns with a lot of neglect—it gets it. v ln no one respect Is the average farmer more careless, than in his choice of seed, and this may be said to be the prime essential. The farmer is plowing, manuring, performing all the operations from planting time to harvest, year after year, and with some of these he takes considerable pride; for instance, I know farmers who are perfect plowmen; they knew it and are proud of their, skill, but these same farmers are hide-bound in an old custom of throwing their corn in their *crlb just as It is husked, and when they want seed in,the springtime, they go to the crib and pick out sufficient likely ears from what are left to mefit their needs, and let it go at that. It is an enigma how a man can be so skilled as a workman in many respects, and yet absolutely inert to one of the most vital phases of securing perfection in that work. It needs no argument for it has been demonstrated over and over again that the breeding of plants can be followed with as much certainty as to‘results, as the breeding of animals. Then why" not do it? The only added equipment which nine out of ten require is the exercise of more intelligent care and precision 1n some of the details. It seems strange, but it is nevertheless a fact, that most farmers are aware of what may be done in plant, breeding, and know the general principles. but they will not wake up to a, practice of them In their own interests. If we are to increase the corn yield we-have got to get It In the breed.

It is not in the soil, or the fertilizer, or the weather, nor in any other factor, Important though each may be. The first essential is to breed up corn for points ■ with the same care given to animals or fowls. Typo, quality, stamina, productiveness, etc., must be known, must be sought for and improved with each season. It is not enough to pick out perfect ears or such as may be attractive at harvest time. It is necessary that one shall know the plant that produced the ear, and all the conditions of its growth and environment; There are many mysteries to be solved in this question of seed selection with the view to breeding up a more productive type of corn. My own experiments in. this direction will indicate some of the difficulties to be mes "with. In husking the corn the fall of 1908 I came across just one stalk containing two ears. It was the first I had ever met with, though upon inquiry I find that farmers do frequently come across such two-eared stalks, though they never pay any attention to them, but throw them in the crib with the others. It occurred to me, however, that It would be well to plant from those two ears and endeavor to raise a twoeared type. One ear was of good size other about two-thirds as big. Weighing them the large one weighed 14 ounces and the small 9% ounces. The large ear was an average ear such as every stalk carried. Thus this particular gave 9Ms ounces more than any other plant. This gain would mean almost a ton more to the acre if the corn could be bred to yield two ears. It would mean even more if the two ears could be made to attain a good size Instead of one being large and one small as in this case. The corn was of a variety called yellow-flint, obtained originally of a near-by farmer. From these two ears I selected 630 kernels, discarding the butts and tips. The field in which this was planted was fall plowed and dressed during the winter with a liberal application of a high quality of stable manure, as I keep such in a cement-bottomed pit. The two-eared seed was planted at one end of the tnain corn field. It should, of course, have had a separate plot, and it may be that the tendency to revert to one ear was due in part to its contiguity to the ordinary corn. The 630 kernels made 210 hills, fourteen failed to come dp, probably being eaten by worms or mice. The germination showed very strong vitality. However, of the 016 stalks, all from the two-eared seed, only 136 stalks produced a double ear. About one-fifth. Another interesting point, showing clearly the tendency to reversion to remote ancestors, is found in the fact that while the two-seed ears were of 12 rows about 75 per cent, of the yield was of one eight-rowed cobs. Although this variety of flint corn will show frequent ears of 12 and 14 rows, it may be considered properly an eight-rowed type of corn. Thus we see that after throwing the sport of a two-eared stalk, there is *>ot

sufficient stamina in all the seeds to reproduce like the patent. 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 before a highly-productive two-eared type of corn can be raised with the qualities of the parent so fixed* that it can be relied upon to ,maintain a big average yield. It may be due to a weaAess of inbreeding. Some <4 the ears weighed over a pound each, making over two pounds to the stalk. If this could be averaged 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 judiclous 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 a big one for whft is involved. It does not imply added cost, in the production, but only a greater care and interest in one’s work. Another thing to be kept in mind in breeding up a type of corn for higher 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 productiveness of corn could be increased by only one kernel to eqph ear, on the entire crop it would mean a gain of 50 tons of grain! Even though the figures be not absolute there is no gainsaying that the increase of yield would be a very big amount in the aggregate. The point is made very clearly in ti>e accompanying photographs which . show eight, ten and twelve-rowed ears of corn. Each ear was exactly the same in weight, being 11 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 a three ounce cob. The twelve-rowed ear gave BV4 ounces of grain. A difference of an ounce and a half to the ear of actual grain is an appreciable gain worth striving for. But that does not inean that such is the limit of the gain to be obtained. It would be quite within reason to obtain tenfold that Increase. The chief requisite to substantia] progress in the growing of a more productive N 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 husking. 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 a book, and the stalks should be marked so that they can he identified at „ any time. My method is to snip out little bHs of tin; punch a hole through them at one side and put a bit of thin wire through and twist this loosely about the st«Jk when marking it On the tin I scratch a number with a sharp awl. There is not likely to occui accident‘ that can destroy tail tag or erase the figure*