Show good hybrid corn needs good soil better varieties equipped to produce on highly fertile land by A L lang chief soil experiment peri ment fields university 0 of illinois service with farmers preparing to plant a record acreage ot of hybrid seed mn corn this year they are advised that good hybrids need good soll soil because of the accumulation of the many desirable characteristics in the better belter strains of hybrid corn the good hybrids are more adapted and better equipped to produce high yields on highly fertile soils than are the common open pollinated varieties rie ties good hybrids need good soil not because they are unable to produce on poor soil but because they have the ability to utilize more effectively the materials found ln in fertile soil A corn grower can not expect to grow 90 bushel or bushel corn on 30 bushel land and he may be wasting high quality seed if he tries it on the other hand if he has high quality soil capable of producing big crops he Is wasteful if he does docs not use seed good enough to make full use of the land one good feature of corn improvement by hybrid breeding is that that superior hybrids may make it possible to obtain much larger returns from good systems of soil improvement than has been possible in the past in other words a farmer need no longer fear that he is getting his land too good for his seed however hybrid corn can not be expected to take the backache out of spreading limestone nor to serve as a substitute for crop rotations and applications of manure and fertilizer ti |