ntries. Think how many bushels of wheat have been added to
the world's annual supply by a few moments of intelligent observation
and action on the part of this one man! He saw his opportunity and used
it. How many similar opportunities do you think are lost? How much does
your state or country lose thereby?

=EXERCISE=

Select one hundred seeds from a good, and one hundred from a poor,
plant of the same variety. Sow them in two plats far enough apart
to avoid cross-pollination, yet try to have soil conditions about
the same. Give each the same care and compare the yield. Try this
with corn, cotton, and wheat. Select seeds from the best plant in
your good plat and from the poorest in your poor plat and repeat
the experiment. This will require but a few feet of ground, and the
good plat will pay for itself in yield, while the poor plat will
more than pay in the lesson that it will teach you.

Write to the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., and to
your state experiment station for bulletins concerning
seed-selection and methods of plant-improvement.

SECTION XIX. SELECTING SEED CORN

If a farmer would raise good crops he must, as already stated, select
good seed. Many of the farmer's disappointments in the quantity and
quality of his crops--disappointments often thought to come from other
causes--are the result of planting poor seed. Seeds not fully ripened,
if they grow at all, produce imperfect plants. Good seed, therefore, is
the first thing necessary for a good crop. The seed of perfect plants
only should be saved.

By wise and persistent selection, made in the field before the crop is
fully matured, corn can be improved in size and made to mature earlier.
Gather ears only from the most productive plants and save only the
largest and best kernels.

[Illustration: FIG. 53. THE KIND OF EAR TO SELECT]

You have no doubt seen the common American blackbirds that usually
migrate and feed in such large numbers. They all look alike in every
way. Now, has it ever occurred to you to ask why all blackbirds are
black? The blackbirds are black simply because their parents are black.

Now in the same way that the young blackbirds resemble their parents,
corn will resemble its parent stock. How many ears of corn do you find
on a stalk? One, two, sometimes three or four. You find two ears of corn
on a stalk because it is the nature of that particu