HYBRID CORN IN U.S.A.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 57, 2 December 1946, Page 7

HYBRID CORN IN U.S.A.

RECORD-BREAKING CROP i < . r ~. . ■ ! PROSPECTS REVEALED Greater planting of hybrid corn—the only major improvement in corn which the white man has made since taking the grain over from the Indians —was seen as responsible for prospects of a record-breaking crop this year, states a message from America., 1 Hybrid corn,' grain men asserted, yields at least 20 per cent, more grain than open-pollinated varieties. It is better able to withstand adverse weather conditions, such as the dry summer parts of the Midwest are experiencing, and it matures more uniformly. Grain men noted that the record crop of ,3,496,820,000 bushels predicted for this year would come from a smaller acreage than the 10year (1935-44) average—9l,4B7,ooo acres against 91,698,000. Last year acreage was 91,202,000. To get this bumper crop, yields will haVe to average about five bushels more ah acre this year than last and 10 bushels more an acre than the 10-year (1935-44) average. The Midwest this < yeat has gone “all out” fpr hybrid corn, grain men said. lowa, golden buckle of the cornbelt, has its acerage 100 per cent, planted in hybrids. Illinois and Indiana have 99 per cent, of their total acreage in hybrids, Ohio 97 per cent., Minnesota ‘95 per cent., Wisconsin 92 per cent and Missouri 91 per cent. Because of the relatively high yields in the cornbelt, grain men said it is likely that four-fifths of all corn production in the United States this year will be grown from hybrid seed. Growth in popularity of hybrid corn has come sinbe 1933, when only one acre in a thousand was planted in that variety. Even as late as 1939, only one acre in four was hybrid.