The Saving Of Corn For Seedis an important work, and one generally overlooked. It is the common practice to select the best ears at the time of husking. This is good so far as it goes, but is attended with two disadvantages. One is the selecting of the largest ears, of which in general only one grows on a stalk, which lessens the produce; and the other is the liability of selecting those that ripen at different times.

It is natural to suppose that the grains of stunted or sickly corn, even though the ears may attain a large size, necessarily partake of the weakly disposition of the plant which produced them, and that this product cannot be so fine as that which grows from seeds of strong and healthy plants. For this reason the ears, whether of sweet or field corn, should be selected before the stalks are cut, being taken where there are two long and well-filled ears on a stalk of low growth, with the ears near the ground. The whole plant should, by the length and breadth of the leaves and the size of stalk, indicate perfect health. Earliness should always go with productiveness ; therefore the first ears to ripen are the ones to select for seed, and all should be gathered at the same time in order that there may be uniformity in ripening united with earliness, which is of the greatest importance in field culture.

While there has been within the past fifty years a marked improvement in the earliness of corn, evenness, particularly where but little is grown for market, has been sadly neglected, and the want of uniformity in the time of flowering has caused many short crops, or imperfect ears, that have been attributed to far different causes. Observation will show plainly that the grower who secures the largest yield is the one that gives the most particular attention to the selection of seed; and, further, the corn that brings the highest price in the market is the one in which grains are of uniform size and color, results of careful selection.

What has been said of the classes mentioned is equally true and applicable to all others. The importance of selecting the best applies to every variety of seed sown, and after securing it, its perpetuation is equally important, and more so its improvement. While there is a limit in development there is but little danger of our ever reaching it, and only by persistent effort can we keep our stocks from degenerating. Perfection may be reached, but by no other road save the one leading to it - viz., selection. C. L. Allen.