Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1918 — SEED CORN FOR INDIANA FARMERS [ARTICLE]

SEED CORN FOR INDIANA FARMERS

State Council.of Defense Has Arranged to Supply Best Quality Available. EARLY PLANTING IS ADVISED Emergency Supply to be Provided and Drawn on Should Replanting be Found Necessary. Full realization of the importance of a bumper corn crop to the prosperity of the state and its ability to contribute its share to the winning of the war, was manifest at the meeting of the Indiana State Council of Defense, when a resolution urging farmers to test their seed and have their planting finished by May 25, was adopted, unanimously. The Indiana State Council through its committee on food production' will endeavor, through the county councils to supply the best seed available, at reasonable prices. It proposes, further, to assist growers in securing tested seed in time to insure its cultivation and maturity before early frosts. The remembrance of the frosts of 1917, which destroyed perhaps 25,000,000 bushels of corn in southern Indiana alone, is still fresh in the memory of those charged with directing the state’s war program, and they will seek to guard against a repetition of this costly experience. After Ernest Thornburg, president of the Indiana Corn Growers Association, had called the attention of the council to the results of demonstrations, which he said, “have shown in a clear that early planted corn gives the largest yields and stands the best chance of maturing in the fall,” the council agreed that no more important recommendation could go out to the farmers from the state government than that they plan to have their corn in by May 25. Planting began in many sections of the state April 25, Mr. Thornburg said. He also stated that late planted corn always runs the risk of being caught by early frosts and delay in planting also necessitates the use of smaller varieties which do not yield as well as the ones suited to the community and which occupy the larger part of the growing season. Indiana farmers are urged by the state council to plan their corn plant-, ing carefully and where possible to co-operate with each other both as to labor and seed.

The efforts of the food production committee have resulted in securing a supply of seed from Missouri, which Prof. T. A. Coleman says was taken from Indiana to Missouri two yeaYs ago and is native to this climate. This corn will be used generally in the southern part of the*state. For planting in northern Indiana counties seed has been secured in New Jersey and the food production committee now has an agent at work in that state endeavoring to purchase from ten to fifteen car loads, which will be sent to Indiana by express, in order that there may be a guaranteed supply in every county. Many farmers, it Was pointed out, are planting what they believed to be good seed, but which will be found after a test to have been bad. In addition to this New Jersey supply, the department of agriculture, through the efforts of G. I. Christie, of the Indiana committee, has agreed to set aside an emergency supply of 2,000 bushels, which will be used where replanting is found necessary.