Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1907 — The Effect of Frost on Corn. [ARTICLE]

The Effect of Frost on Corn.

We hear it frequently stated by farmers and grain men that a little frost does not hurt corn, but rather helps in hasteningflts maturity. We have never been able to agree with this opinion, provided that by “frost” is meant a temperature which freezes in the cells of the plant. Freezing the cell simply means disrupting it, or at least stopping all celL growths Th isAtr the cells that the plant food is formed, and any disruption of the cell or .any dying out, which fipevitabJy occurs when the temperature gets in the neighborhood of 82 degrees, must necessarily derange the functions of the plant and prevent any further growth. Hence whenever there is even the slightest frost before the crop is matared theFe most necessarily be chaffy corn, to say the least. On the other hand, we do not think a low temperature which does not reach the frost line does corn any damage except by arresting the process of and hence making the corn late and more liable to be canght by a later frost. Every plant has a temperature at which cell growth begum andbelow which it ceases. Id wheat this tern perature is 38 degrees Fahrenheit We cannot state exactly^what it is in corn, bat perhaps a little over. A temperature below that of cell activity, but fore, simply arrest growth without putting the machinery..of growth, so to speak, out of order. Hence the cool days in the firsj^jsy^ek-of September which prevailed over the corn belt will not necessarily do corn any damage farther than to delay its period of maturity. Wnen, however, the thermometer sinks below the freezing point cell growth must cease; and a cell once disrupted is for all practical purposes destroyed.

It follows from this that when the season is late it is better to harvest corn rather than to take the risk of frost. Farmers in Canada, northern Minnesota and North Dakota cut their wheat at a stage of greenness which would never be thought of in the country south. They can do this with safety, for two reasons: First, in that cool climate wheat cut green and shocked will not spoil as it will further south; and second, cell life is not destroyed immediately by cutting the stalk lrom the ground. The cell goes on developing plant food until it is dried out, whereas in the case of frost its operations cease at once.—From Wallaces’ Farmer.

A representative will be at our §£ore Wednesday, Oct. 9th, with a complete line of ladies, misses’ and children’s coats %nd suits. Evevy garment delivered. You are in vited to come and inspect the line. Remember the date. Rowels & Parker.