The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-07-26

Seed Corn.
Browne. YOU were lucky in your seed corr
this year you have perfect stand says
Farmer Wallace Luck there is no luck
about it, | know how to preserve seed corn
never make a mistake. With me mistake
Is crime When a farmer thoroughly I'm
derstands his profession, he may, if he will
reduce the future to as dead certainty as ht
can the past There need be no experiments
with the farmer. He cannot afford, as rule
to deal IN uncertainties He is not able to pay
for repeated failures. His fortune is won toe
slowly and laboriously. Can farmer kno"
,ohsn to gather his corn, and hoW to preserve
it, SO rs never TO fail Of good stand when the
seed is properly and timely planted: | an
swer, he can. Does cold weather injure the
seed corng / answer, it never does. Cold is
negative condition, and Injuries nothing in
the vegetable kingdom. Strawberry plants
are covered IN fall, not to keep them warm, as
many suppose but to keep them cold. Trees
are frequently mulched, not to keep them from
freezing, but to keep them frozen. Apples and
potatoes even may be frozen solid and not IN
lure for seed or other use if the heat Is not let
in too rapidly Galore, or heat, as we say, is
positive element and is destructive in large
quantities. Pick your corn late in fall for seed
Let it have time, ample time, to dry out, freeze
out, so that no juice will remain in kernel or
cob. Don't, then, gather and pile up in barn
or elsewhere and let it remain so for over one
day or night before you husk, trace up and
hang up. 1t will gather moisture in a few
hours enough to spoil the corn for seed Trace
up about twelve ears IN a trace, hang up in a
dry, cold, airy room, away from all hogs, cat
tie horses, hay mows and grain bins Of any
kind Do not hang up in your house over the
kitchen as some careful farmers do; steam
from cooking will find its way up to the corn
frequently and spoil it for seed. Hang up in
wood shed or carriage house where it can re
main cold and dry. If cornstalks could be
induced to stand up IN the field, and winters
were like last winter, the best place for corn
for seed would be IN the field. Remember
then, and have no fears of letting your seed corn
remain in the field late in the fall. Never
"pick" it till it Is thoroughly frozen dry. A
whole life of forty years Of corn raising without
ever replanting hill or having single ker
mel fail of coming" has fully confirmed what
study had already taught me. l know, as
every farmer ought to know, how to preserve
seed corn before planting hill AS with seed
corn so with most all other seeds which the
farmer may need.
When you shell your seed corn IN the spring
for planting, shell carefully by hand put 1t in
sacks and stand the sacks In some cool, dry
place. Do not huddle several sacks full to-
gether The corn may go into sweat and
heat IN a few days and your seed is "gone up"
Most corn under favorable circumstances may
come The farmer must plant only such corn
as cannot "help coming" Plant sickly corn
and you will get sickly stalks. As you SOW,
so will we reap, is rs true now as eighteen hun
dred years ago. Farmer Wallace, you may
hear from me again as to what know about
other branches of farming. Take the FREE
TRADER and read my articles, and when am
in error correct me, and by so doing we may
materially benefit each ether and peradventure
the profession generally. Let us not longer
hide our "farthing candle ray" under a bushel.
l am bound to play the missionary hereafter
among the dear farmers. EARLvILLE