Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1914 — COMMUNITY CORN GROWING [ARTICLE]

COMMUNITY CORN GROWING

CARLETON R. NALL, Office of Cereal Investigations, U.JB. - Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. r [National Crop Improvement Service.] Corn Is open pollinated, and as enormous quantities are produced in areas having'fairly strong wind velocities there is opportunity for widespread mixing of varieties. This is augmented by the height of the plant and the elevation of the tassel above the silk, which afford greater opportunity for wind action. Through zenia, the effects of the crossing of varieties of different color, as white, yellow, red, blue and speckled, become apparent the same season in which the cressing occurs. da the market, corn is graded on color as well as quality, so that for this reason alone every effort should be made to prevent the crossing of varieties of different color. Community co-operation may well be directed toward the prevention of such cross-pollination or of any mixing at all, since the crossing of varieties of the same color is'undesir able because affecting uniformity in height, maturity and other characters. Owing to the readiness with which the pollen is carried by the wind there Is danger of mixing not only In adjacent fields on the same farm, but on adjacent Anns as well. The ready solution Is to restrict by agreement the varieties grown in the community. This restriction will also help the sale of pure varieties at the elevators. Mixing different colors In the bln or car lowers the grade and price. Professor Tass of lowa, recommends the building of communal seed corn houses to meet the need for prompt and proper curing and safe storage from frost, moisture and, vermin. He estimates that for about IMO a house can be constructed sufficient for 300 to 400 bushels of ears. This Is estimated at twice the quantity actually needed by fifteen to twenty farmers, to whom the average initial cost would be only twenty or twenty-five dollars apiece. The upkeep, of course, would be only a slight annual expense.

Abraham Lincoln said as long ago as 1859: “Unquestionably it will take more labor to produce fifty bushels of wheat from vo acre than it will to produce ten bushels from the same acre; but will it take more labor to produce fifty bushels from one acre than from .five? Unquestionably thorough cultivation will require more labor to the acre, but will it require ■tore to the bushels"

Warren Simpson of Northfield, Minnesota, who won first prise la the central district of that state in the acre yield contest conducted by tho Agricultural Extension Division of tho University ot Minnesota, is a crippled boy. Owing to Ms infirmities he was compelled to crawl on his hands and knees between the rows or corn to cultivate It. His aero yielded 103.8 bushels Hold measnse and 77.59 bushels dry. Such pluck is admired everywhere and we are glad to commeag it. '' “Tao many farmers are In the habit of thinking of their own time andot that of their teams as having no money value. The troth is that money invested in farms and their equipment returns a very small dividend under avenge management. The fanner must make his own time and the’ labor of his teams a very large source of income, otherwise ho will flail Into tho class of dissatisfied farmers.”—H. P. Miller, Agent, Pentago County, Ohio.