The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-09-25
SEED COIN.
Why and When Every Good Hushandman
Should Select His Own Seed.


What man sows he reaps. The Sc
lection of seed is, therefore, of the high
est Importance to the farmer who wants
to reap the best and the most as a
recompense for his labor. Labor
IS thrown away on worthless material.
a man may spend as much skill and
pains IN carving medallion out of q
piece of sandstone or soft slate as he
might out of hard, beautiful ONYX or
she purest alabaster, and at the end he
has only trash that is worthless and
aisagreeable to show for it. So a man
RAY crib his corn in a few weeks, and
in the spring, from mass of moldy
aid refuse ears, he may hastily gather
seed for the next crop, but it ne expects
good and abundant yield from he
viii be sorely mistaken. 1t may seem
to be unnecessary to state so plain and
trite truth, but there are thousands of
farmers who viii do this very thing, and
some doubtless will co it who are now
reading this warning.
The enormous losses which have fall
en- upon farmers the past few years
through the use of lnterlor seed have
wrought damage TO the extent of mill
ions OF dollars; some farmers lost near
ly their whole crop last year and the
year before, and thousands lost a large
portion OF it, and all this might ma e
been prevented by the simple precaution
or seIccting good sound seed in tue
| fall There is another tact winch should
be considered, and that is that corn is
susceptible of greater improvement
through the selection and use of the
best seed than any otner plant grown
upon farms, and at the same time
this plant can be better improved by
using home grown seed than that pro-
cured at great cost from distance.
There are many wise and thoughtful
farmers who have been saving seed
from their best plants for many years
twenty, forty and some for fifty years
and their regulations for growing
good corn and large crops have made
them the seedsmen OF their localities.
Farmers who mAht have done the
same Tor themselves have paid Tour or
five prices Tor seed grown by these
neighbors. Perhaps this common neg
lect is necessary condition to eStab-
lish the truth of the proyerb that ''the
hand OF the dillgent maketh rich, but
at any rate the result justines the say
ing. This self-intiicted tax paid to
the diligent seed gatherer might be
spared and the public wealth increased
by a hundred million dollars if every
farmer would early begin the work or
selecting seed corn, and hereafter take
special pains to cultivate the crops
grewn from it so as to improve the gram
in every possible way. And just here we
would deprecate as strongly as posi-
BILE the so-called experiments of some
agricultural experiment stations, the
oDJect of which has been to try to
show that moldy, half-ripened, shriv-
eled corn would grow ana produce a
crop, What is the poss. bic use of such
an experiment? 1t may serve to en-
courage thriftless farmer in neglect
ing the plalnest precaution and duty,
and so lnJure the interests which should
be helped and encouraged by these sta
tions, but no reasonable man would
ever act upon such suggestion. Be-
sides, it is not true. 1t IS an apparent
impossibility that a grain of corn deli
Gent ia substance can bear a germ of
sufficient vital strength to reproduce
the original quality of seed. Ii 1t were
otherwise, then all the claimed results
of breeders from the excellent care and
cultivation of u race OF cattle and tue
selection of the best dams and sireS
would be falsined, and the poorest half
starved scrub might be used as the
progenitor OF superior progeny. "As
a man sows so shall he reap.
Then the farmer intent upon improv-
ing his corn will go into the tield as the
ears are ripenng and select those plants
which most nearly meet his ideal of
what the best corn should Elephants
with moderately sized and well leaied
stalks which bear two ears, both well
hlled out and sound, and the earliest
ripe-and from these plants he will
choose The upper ear for seed, and mark
the stalk by tying a colore1 strip around
the top OF it. Or as soon as he becomes
expert and can select these stalks rs he
goes along in cutting the crop ne leaves
them standing until the rest Is all down
and these ears are ripe and dry, and
then proceeds TO save them in the best
manner. If there is but one good ear
on stalk 1t may be saved, but as null
tiple caring is very desirable we would
choose less attractive ear from twin
bearing stalk in preference to single
ear. but the top ear should always De
taken because 1t Is the earliest.
These selected ears may be strung
upon wlre or a cord IN dozens by
using a long Irvine needle, anu eight
sucn strings would NIKE a busnel OF
she1led corn. These strings shou.d-be
hung IN a dry place out OF The reach Oh
vernin, and no extreme of cold llAely
to occur Will inJure them. In the South,
where the corn ''weevil, as it is called,
but really the corn moth worm,
abounds, tee corn should be kept in
bags or old kerosene oil barrels and
thus out of the reach of tbs pest AS
early maturity is no special advantage
in the South it is not necessary to Sc
lect the first ripe ears, but only the
largest and best filled And yet for
some purposes and at some times early
corn is useful even in the South, where
the present season corn has been bring
ing from 81 to $L25 per bushel IN
places where the crop was short last
year. IN T. Times.
e