Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1917 — KEEP THE SEED CORN SAFE [ARTICLE]

KEEP THE SEED CORN SAFE

Must Be Kept Dry and Away From Rodents and Insects. Seed corn may be left on the racks where the ears have been dried. But it is generally- preferable, says the United States Department of Agriculture, to store the ears in mouse-proof barrels, boxes, or crates’during the winter. In any case they must not be exposed to dampness or they will absorb moisture and be injured. After hanging in the drying shed, or lyjng on the racks where there is constant circulation of dry air for the first two months after they have been selected from the stalks in the field,, the seed eays should be bone dry and contain less than 10 per cent of moisture. Some farmers place the thoroughly dry ears in the center of a wheat bin and then fill the bin with loose, dry wheat. ■ If signs of weevils of grain moths show,, the corn should be inclosed with carbon bisulphid in a practically air-tight room. bin. box or barrel for 4 8 hours. The liquid bisulphid should be placed in shallow dishes on. top of the box or barrel holding 10 bushels or less. The fumes from the bisulphid are heavier than air and gradually fall to the bottom of the receptacle, permeating the whole mass. One pound of the carbon bisulphid is enough for a room or bin Ifi feet in each dimension. After fumigation the ears must be thoroughly aired, whereupon the unpleasant odor disappears. Great care should be used with carbon bisulphid: its fumes are quite as inflammable as those from gasoline. To' prevent the entrance of weevils and moths, the ears may be stored in comparatively air-tigat boxes or barrels with one pound of moth balls or napthalene for each bushel of corn, which is not injured. Ten pounds Will protect enough seed to plant 60 acres.

Astor Asquith of Edgehill, Utahhas appealed to the postmaster to help him establish proof of his subscription to the Liberty Loan. Asquith’s young son, age two, swallowed his Liberty Loan button, and one of the pigs, loose in the barnyard, ate up the certificate, which had dropped from Asquith’s pocket while he was pumping water for the cattle. He says it was for a S2OO bond.

The lower house of convocation, by 65 votes to 26, passed a resolation moved by the dean of Canterbury, asking the upper house to consider a proposal that the name of King Charles, the martyr, should be reinserted as a blackletter sa’nt. Redletter saints, so called from their names being printed in the calendar in red letters, are the chief saints, the blackletter ones being those of minor importance. On the day of his baptism, a Japanese manufacturer, a recent Christian convert, gave a holiday with full pay to all his employes.