Plant-breeding; comments on the experiments of Nilsson and Burbank . 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 questionh
Plant-breeding; comments on the experiments of Nilsson and Burbank . 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 log no PLANT-BREEDING The use of fertilizers, more careful processes of prepar-ing the land and handhng the seed and the plants, and aproper choice of the seed-grain are the acknowledged meansby wliich to attain this end Of course, in these lectures I am concerned only with thequestions relating to variabiUty and selection. But no cropis more responsive to careful selection of the seed than to the condition of the land, the treatment ofthe field may be of first importance, but good seed willalways add considerably to the yield, and the more so, thebetter the condition of the soil and the care given to itsculture. Some farmers are producing 60 to 70 bushels per acreevery year, while their neighbors are contented with anaverage harvest of 30 to 35 bushels. In favorable cases theproduct might easily be increased to a hundred bushels peracre and even more. As a rule, howe^•er, the c(jrn yield per acre is graduallydecreasing, at least in some of the leading states. In Ohio
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