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Experience in Developing a High‐Yielding Strain of Corn 1
Author(s) -
Kirkpatrick Charles D.
Publication year - 1925
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1925.00021962001700080006x
Subject(s) - citation , courtesy , gold medal , medal , library science , mathematics , horticulture , computer science , art , art history , political science , biology , law
Corn shows have been widely patronized by farmers and specialists in an effort to choose the best seed ears. Usually these ten-ear samples have been judged on the assumption that the crop would be improved if the seed ears conformed to a certain type, preference being given to large ears, deep grains, and, in the Reid variety, to neatly paired rows, medium rough dent, well-filled tips, etc. While these characters had a certain usefulness in elementary corn study, they were not trustworthy in careful breeding operations. In 1912, the writer tried planting a 2o-ear sample from a prize winning bushel in an ear-to-row test. The 30% variation in yield which was obtained was evidence enough that some systematic work in breeding ought to be effective in eliminating the low-producing elements which were present .in these prize-winning ears of corn.