Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1883-06-30
Weak and Bad Seed Responsible.

Weak and Bad Seed Responsible.
Campaign County cor. Country Gentleman
While for months previous to seed
ing, the fact had been accepted that a
poor stand of corn was almost inevita-
BILE, and measures were early taken
TO avoid it, by fetching seed from
abroad, which however proved mis-
take-foreign seed terminating consid-
erably less satisfactorily than home
grown--few farmers, till lately, have
percei we'd, or been willing to admit
that the loss in winter wheat was
largely due to poor seed. In no other
satisfactory way can the anomaly be
explained of the very unusual specta-
Gle of the survival Of fields of wheat
alongside of other fields where the
plants were badly damaged or killed
outright, both on the same kind of soil,
prepared in the same way and sown at
the same time. Up to the last week
in July, 1882, the harvest weather
all through was remarkably dry and
fine. During these weeks nearly the
entire crop was harvested, and con.
siderable portion threshed. About
July 25th came heavy rains, which
lasted nearly two weeks, and the wheat
in shock was more or less damaged.
Subsequently this portion was stacked
in more or less moistened condition,
and went through the usual sweating
process, and apparently without mate
rial damage to part of it, though there
was much musty wheat. 1t is now re-
membered that the best fields of wheat
were Of good seed threshed from the
shock, which did not 60 through the
sweating process, while Gze most
winter-killing is in almost every case
from grain stacked and threshed after
the rains. Both kinds of seed came
up nearly equally well, but it is now
plain that the one produced plants of
strength and vitality enough to with
stand very adverse weather, but the
weaklings of the other succumbed.
The question is pertinent whether the
sweating process usual in stacks does
not have tendency to lower the vital,
ity of the germ, and whether in future
that fact should not be added to the
other reasons which favor threshing
from the shock.
Corn and wheat are not the only
seeds which have shown deficient vital
ity. ] have had bad luck with many
garden seeds, most of them procured
from seedsmen of established and
spotless reputation. | do not think we
properly appreciate the influence Of the
mean temperature of a given growing
season, neither of the extraordinary
vitality conferred by hot and dry sum-
mers like that Of 1881, or the weaken
ing influences of cool and moist sum-
mer like 1882. The low temperature
appears to have as injuriously affected
the seed corn of Kansas and Southern
Illinois. At any rate the seed obtained
from those sections grew no better than
that from Ohio or Nebraska. In my
own experience seed corn from Middle
Tennessee and Lower Mississippi, of
the crop of 1882, though planted about
the 3Oth of April, terminated to the
last grains but suffered great deal
more than native corn by the frost of
the 21st and 22d of May, in which at
least ten per cent. of the corn over three
inches high was killed outright. The
success of the sorghum industry is in
danger of being compromised by the
failure of the seed to terminate, more
difficulty being experienced with it
than with corn or broom corn. The
gravity of the situation has not been
reported in the newspapers, but we
shall probably hear more of it further
on.
l had supposed the pyrethrums were
ANNALS, but there is a specimen of p.
roseum now in blossom a few feet from
where | write, the seed of which was
sown last fall. The plant had little
or no protection during the winter, and
is now vigorous and attractive in foil
age and quite charming in flower. See
report of the Department of Agricul
ture for 1SSl-S2, plate III, for rather
high-colored, but otherwise a capita
,oNrosantotiOn nf n
The sensation of the hour among
4,,,, ,,,,I foolo,., :, tho F,cts ko,n,