Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1916 — DE SURE TO TEST SEED CORN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DE SURE TO TEST SEED CORN

AGRICULTURAL A experts predict short com crop this year. Farmers advised to test every I grain of seed in order to avoid loss -situation serious

By P. G. HOLDEN.

JHTwm HERE win be a short corn crop this year and milH|l • lions ot dollars will be lost to the farmers if great care 18 not taken In selectin S and testing- the best maty tured corn for this season’s A 1 \ planting. ' 7 y We may well take the warning to heart, for this section of the country lives and prospers largely on the production of its land, and follow the advice of agricultural Scientists who can tell our people how to escape heavy loss. This advice will work no hardship and no expense if followed. It will require a little careful work and sharp watching at a season of the year when the farmer is not overburdened with labor. Nineteen fifteen was a bad year for corn. A cold, wet season retarded the growth of the grain. The crop in many parts of the corn belt was immature; it contains an Excessive amount of water and is unfit for seed. The scarcity of seed corn is really the most serious in many years. You farmers may say you are going to use seed from your 1914 crop. Don’t trust it. The grain may have been damaged by the frost during the hard freezes of last year. Don’t trust It—test it. The high price of corn, too, on account of the war has nearly exhausted the 1914 crop and this Source of supply then is not reliable. Missing Hills, Weak Stalks. There are about 890 kernels on the average ear of corn. One poor seed means 800 weak, moldy or dead kernels. If these are planted It means missing hills and weak stalks producing little or nothing. According to reports Just received, every Indication points to very serious trouble with seed corn, especially in sections lying north of central Illinois and in North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and lowa. This community ought to get busy right now, for the prosperity of our community—our merchants, our bankers, our builders, our workers—depends on the prosperity of the farmers hereabouts. We ougirt to start a seed corn campaign. The county superintendent of schools can reach the farmers through the rural schoolteachers, who in turn will see that the children carry the message home. You bankers, merchants and implement dealers who trade directly with the farmers ought to write personal letters urging them to ga into this matter scientifically. In short, all of us ought to mobilize our forces, Just as our nation 1 would have to mobilize all its resources in case of war. You farmers must not use poor seed this spring. It means too much to all of us. Poor seed means not only a poor stand and. a portion of the field idle, but that you must cultivate missing hills, one-stalk hills, and poor, worthless stalks, and receive nothing in return. Don’t Work for Nothing. Thousands of people every year wof-k more than a third of every day on ground that produces nothing. Do not depend for seed on the occasional good ears selected during the husking period. The corn will be injured by freezing before it is husked or before it has had time to become dry after husking. Select the best ears, if you have not already done so, and string them on binder twine and hang up. Do not store seed corn In barrels or boxes. It will "gather moisture” and mold or freeze. Do not store over the stable. Do not put Immature or freshly gathered seed corn In a warm room, on the floor, or In piles. It will either sprout, or mold, or both. It should be hung up at once, and the windows opened to allow the freest circulation of air. Do not depend on the crib for seed corn. One day devoted to the seed corn, at the proper time, may be worth more than an entire month of hard work next summer put on a poor stand es -corn, ... The attic is a good place to hang up the seed corn. There should be a circulation of air through the room. A space three by eight feet will hold 200 strings of corn, twelve to fifteen ears to each string, or about enough to plant 200 acres. Three-fourths of. this a —

corn may be discarded after testing, but there will be enough seed to plant fifty acres, more than the average acreage on each farm. There are several objections to the average cellar. It is apt to be too damp, and the corn must be well dried before putting in the cellar, and it must not be corded up or put in piles, but hung up. Will Your Seed Corn Grow? It is good business to know that the seed that you put into th 6 ground will grow; and the only way you can tell good seed is by testing it. You can’t tell by merely looking at it. If you want profitable yields, you must plant good seed. The ten million acres of corn planted in lowa every year are grown in 217,000 farms, an average of about forty-six acres to each farm. It will take about 600 ears to plant forty acres. Twenty-sour 1 hours’ time of one man, two days’ work, will test six kernels from each ear to plant forty acres. Yet, because it is “too much bother,” most of us pick out 600 ears, look at them, guess that they will grow, and plant them. As a congegimncp, more than twelve acres out of each forty acres of corn planted produce nothing. This is worse than useless, because one must plow, plant and cultivate these twelve acres and get nothing In return. By testing you get rid of the bad, weak, and moldy ears. Testing does not hurt the corn. It costs but aboiit ten cents an acre, and can be done at a time of the year when other farm work is not pressing. By testing you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Discard Poor Ears. In the 1 winter, during a slack season or in the early spring, from February 20 to March 20, select the best ears from the corn you have stored in the fall and get ready to put them through the test. The sawdust germination box is no doubt the best method for testing seed corn. It costs nothing but a little time and labor. It furnishes nearly natural conditions. It is not essential that the box be of any particular size, although about, thirty inches square and four or five inches deep will be found convenient. This size will test 100 ears at a time. The sawdust is light, clean, and easy to get and handle in February and the first of March, when the testing should be done; is a good nonconductor of heat and cold, so that the temperature is kept even during germination, and holds the moisture so perfectly that there Is no danger of drying out; The number of boxes required will depend upon the amount of seed to be tested and the time limit. After the germination boxes are made, inspect carefully the ears you are to test from the standpoint of the kernel. Take two or three kernels from each ear, about a third of the length of the ear from the butt. Lay them germ-side up at the tip of the ear from which they were taken. If the kernels are small, wedge-shaped, narrow, shallow, too deep, or If they show immaturity, starchiness, a tendency to mold, or if the germs are small, or shriveled, discard the ear. Remove six kernels from ent places on each ear you have selected to t£st, taking two from near the butt on the Opposlte sides Ofthe ear, two from near the tip, turning the. ear enough so as not to take two kernel's out of the same row. How to Test Seed Com. Fill the box about half full of moist sawdust, well pressed down, so as to

leave a smooth, even surface. The sawdust should be put in a gunnysack atid set in a tub of warm water for at least an hour (or still better, over night) so that it will be thoroughly moistened before using. Rule off a piece of good quality white cloth (sheeting), about the size of the box, into squares, two and one-half inches each way. Number the squares, 1,2, 3, etc. Place the cloth on the sawdust and tack it to the box at the corners and edges. Use care that the kernels do not get mixed with those from the ear next to it. After the kernels are removed, boards may be laid over the rows of ears to keep them in place until* the result of the germination test is known. Place the six kernels from ear No. 1 In square No. 1 of the germination box; from ear No. 2 in square No. 2, and so on with all the ears. Lay a piece of good cloth (a good quality of sheeting) on top of the kernels and dampen It. Press the cloth down gently with the palm of hand, being careful not to misplace the kernels in the squares. Now place over this cloth another cloth of the same material, considerably larger than the first one (about six feet square), and fill in on top with two or three inches of moist, warm sawdust. Pack it down firmly with a brick or with the feet. The edges of the cover should then be folded over the sawdust in the box to prevent drying out. Now set the box away until the kernels sprout Keep in an ordinary warm place, like the living room, where it will not .freeze. The kernels will germinate in about eight days. Remove the cover carefully to avoid misplacing the kernels in the squares. Examine the kernels in each square In the germination box, and discard all ears whose kernels In the box are dead, moldy, or show weak germination. Caring for Seed Corn. If the kernels show weak, spindling sprouts, or a part of them are very weak and uneven, the ear should be thrown out to make place tor an ear whose kernels give strong, vigorous sprouts. Remember that the kernels which are slow to sprout, and are weak, will be behind the strong ones in the field. After the seed has been sorted, tested, shelled, and graded for the planter, and the bad kernels removed, it should be placed In half-bushel sacks and hung up in a dry place. Put in sacks, separate from the rest, the seed from the best 100 ears. When planting, use the seed from "the beat 100 ears” on one sldtf of the field from which to pick your seed corn for the next year’s planting. We cannot afford to neglect this important work. If every farmer would test every ear of his seed Cdrn in the. winter in the Way described above, the yield would be wonderfully increased. No other time will be SO profitable to the farmer as that spent in testing the vitality of his seed and in grading to Insure the planter dropping the proper number of kernels tn each hfll; It is possible tor everyone to do this work. It will cost nothing but the time, at which there is plenty at the season when the wort should be done. \ <