Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1904 — HINTS FOR FARMERS [ARTICLE]

HINTS FOR FARMERS

Th* Ideal Ear of Cora. For the last two or three years farmers In the middle corn belt have expressed their conviction that the size of the ear of corn as prescribed by the score card Is too small. They claim that the object of growing corn Is to get the greatest number of pounds of the biggest feeding value and therefore that the length of the ear should not be limited to ten inches; that It is quite possible to get an ear eleven or twelve inches long quite as perfect in other respects as the shorter ear. Therefore why not In the central and especially In the southern districts encourage the growth of the larger ear? The whole question of course turns on whether the larger ear will grow more com than the smaller. Long ears usually have shallower grains, and therefore a smaller proportion of corn to cob and as a rule have less corn than shorter ears. We have, however, in some of the corn exhibits seen ears auove the standard length that were quite as deep in the grain and as small in the cob as the ears of standard length, and the question therefore resolved itself into tills: Is It possible to lengthen the ear of com and still maintain the large per cent of corn to cob?

We can readily see why corn experts have adopted the present standard. When men really began to study corn, they soon discovered that the ideal of many farmers of the very long ear Is altogether wrong; that farmers who are growing these long ears and selecting for length are really growing cobs and not com. It was very easy to demonstrate to them by simply shelling and weighing that they were really growing less corn on a cob twelve or fourteen inches long than they were on one ten inches. We have gone far enough now, however, to ask the question whether the ear might not be lengthened one Inch or even two in the selections capable of producing the largest crops without diminishing, but, on the other band, actually increasing the yield per acre.— Farmers’ Advocate.

American Fruits and Nats. In the twelve months ended Jan. 1, 1004, there were exported from this country fruits and nuts to the value of $19,839,107. This will startle many people who have no true idea of the rapid development of the fruit industry in this country. Of this amount apples alone contributed $7,758,908. Ten years ago the exports of fruits and nuts amounted to only $3,918,799, while the exported apples were worth only $1,580,052. This immense increase in the export trade in fruits is only a suggestion as to what the future has in store. It is also a mere mouthful compared with the increase in home consumption which the future is sure to bring. Stand in New York city on any crowded corner and stop 100 men at random. Ask them how many apples they have eaten within a week, and you will be astonished to find that the great majority hardly know what an apple tastes like. All these people are to be educated in fruit eating. They will learn in time and each year will bring new recruits to the Apple Consumers’ league. Let no man fear for the future of apple culture if he is willing to conduct it in a businesslike way.