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Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1886
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188 FARM PAPERS. B Y G. E. M O R B O W , P R O F E S S O R O F A G R I C U L T U R E . CORN CULTURE. The readiness with wThich varieties of corn cross-fertilize, and the fact that variations in type can be more readily seen and perpetuated by selection of seed than in the case of any of the small grains, have,caused great difficulty and confusion in the nomenclature and description of varieties, especially of the Dent varieties, so generally cultivated in Illinois The influence of soil and climate ]n modifying characteristics is especially noticeable in corn. Very few of the Dent varieties have their minor characteristics so firmly fixed that one can with certainty identify samples submitted to him from different neighborhoods. Often there is great lack of uniformity in the ears produced on adjacent stalks, more difference being found than between selected ears of varieties known under different names. Persistent selection with reference to one type is the only method of avoiding this, and so long as there remains so much difference of opinion among farmers as to what constitutes the best type, it is hardly to be expected that any variety, however carefully it has been bred, will long remain uniform in minor characteristics after it has been generally disseminated. When different varieties are grown on the same or even on adjoining farms, mere or less. modification from cross-fertilization is to be expected. In recent years we have tried more than 100 named and unnamed varieties, finding many of them nearly the same, and the large majority either unnamed or known only by the name of some one, or some locality, by whom the variety had been introduced or from which it had been obtained. A most gratifying conclusion from the trials, as well as from examination of hundreds of exhibits of corn at State and other fairs in Illinois, is that almost every locality in the State in which corngrowing is a leading feature of the farming, has varieties excellently adapted to the local conditions of soil and climate, in many cases so desirable that it is at best doubtful if it would be wise to discard these for any of the much praised varieties occasionally introduced at high prices by seed dealers.
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