Plant-breeding; comments on the experiments of Nilsson and Burbank . portance, and the agriculture of theprincipal states of the Middle West is almost wholly depen-dent upon the raising of corn. Illinois stands first, but Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Ne-braska, and some others deserve as well their name of thecorn states. In Indiana the average crop is ;^;^ bushels peracre, a bushel containing in round numbers 100 ears andcommonly shelhng out 56 pounds. On account of tliis pre-eminent importance, all questionsconcerning the possible means of increasing the crop of corn io8 PLANT-BREEDING are manife
Plant-breeding; comments on the experiments of Nilsson and Burbank . portance, and the agriculture of theprincipal states of the Middle West is almost wholly depen-dent upon the raising of corn. Illinois stands first, but Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Ne-braska, and some others deserve as well their name of thecorn states. In Indiana the average crop is ;^;^ bushels peracre, a bushel containing in round numbers 100 ears andcommonly shelhng out 56 pounds. On account of tliis pre-eminent importance, all questionsconcerning the possible means of increasing the crop of corn io8 PLANT-BREEDING are manifestly of the highest vakie. Our discussion of thedifferent metliods of improving cereals has for this reasonto be completed by an inquiry in how far and on whatpoints the principles discovered and elaborated in Europecan advantageously be considered in the selection of tliisdominant American crop. In thi corn states the production of corn has sincesome years ago reached its higliest degree of development,as far as its acreage is concerned. Almost all the land suit-. Fig. 29. Breeding block of corn which has been bred for high oil contenton the farms of Funk Bros. Seed Co., Bloomington, 111. able for corn growing has been given to this crop. Locally,some increase of the area may still be possible, but it is ofno real importance for the total amount of the crop. Hence, it follows that an increase of the harvest can beobtained only by an augmentation of the yield per acre,and since the demand for corn is incessantly increasing andthe prices are becoming correspondingly higher, the questionhow to increase this yield has become a most urgent land values are constantly rising, and handsome profits arepossible, but to secure them better methods must be employed.
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