Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-12-11
SEED CORN QUESTION
Was the Big Thing in Connect
ion With the State Farm
ers' Institute
MUCH ATTENTION GIVEN TO It
Iowa Agricultural Students Observe
Work Done Along This Line by
Other States = Prof. p. G. Holden
of Illinois, Expert in Corn Breeding,
Is Secured by Iowa State College.
Special to Times-Republican.


Special to Times Republican.
| Des Moines, Dec. 1.-THE big thing
in connection with the state farmers
institute this year was the seed corn
question. Leading farmers of the state
who are connected with the department
of agriculture are agreed that this is
the new topic, the live topic, the impor-
tant thing in connection with farm i'm
provement in Iowa at this time. Ihe
1 seed corn question has been projected
Into the Iowa agricultural situation by
a combination of circumstances. Stu
dents of agriculture from Iowa have
| seen what is being done in some other
states and especially in a few counties
/ in other states in the way of increasing
the yield of corn by improvement of the
! breeds. Prof. p. G. Holden, of Illinois,
was known to be an expert IN corn
! breeding, a practical man as Well as
one versed in the scientific phases OIL
| the subject. A movement was started
| to get him to Iowa. The right place for
| him was at the state college, and an Oh
| fer was made and finally he was Sc
cured. He has arranged for the corn
! judging school at Ames in January, ana
he has superintended the corn EXHIBIT
/ here. There were several hundred
samples of corn on exhibition, some OF
! them very good ones, but In the main
| just ordinary seed corn. Premiums Of
fered by the society brought these ex-
/ hibits. Prof. Holden said in regard to
| this corn:
/ "The exhibit OF corn here is good.
| This is especially true of the corn from
i the southern and central parts of the
state. The samples shown here OF the
different varieties indicate that many
of the corn growers have been doing
some earnest work and along the right
i lines. The corn from the northern
s3rts re ~ eAeto Il -lot so sroos Cora
lis shown here which has large Hat
/ grains loose in the ear-such corn as
would not do to plant. The northern
| counties are on the border between the
dent region and the flint region, and it
may be that we will have to consider
that region in class by itself. But
do know that there is better corn for
the northern part of the state than
much that is raised.
/ 81 believe there should be a corn ex-
hibit at Des Moines or at some other
good place in Iowa every year, big
exposition of corn, and large premiums
offered. 1t would do more to stimulate
interest in corn growing than anything
/ 1 could conceive. Over in Peoria we had
a corn exposition and the business men
of the city offered prizes and premiums.
AT first they were skeptical, but later
they insisted on keeping it up. They
found that 1T was paying them. l be-
llieve there could be with the corn ex-
position something to make it attract
live and interesting, aside from the mere
showing of corn, and the state of Iowa
| would gain fame and wealth by such a
movement. 1t Is certainly worth the
trial."
Professor Holden suggests the corn
| palace idea in connection with the corn
exposition, and there might be added
a general exhibit of food products, es-
pecially the cereal preparations which
are flooding the country. He differs
from Corn Cake Murphy in that he
| believes it is not so necessary to go to
Europe and teach the people how to eat
/ corn meal as 1t is to show the farmers
of Iowa how to increase the yield per
acre of the corn as much as five BUSH
els per acre. With 100000 acres plant
ed to corn in Iowa, it is figured that an
| increase of per acre on an average
would be worth little something to
Iowa people. Hardly one of the veter-
ans who attend the annual meetings
here at this time of the year but that
/ acknowledged yesterday that Prof.
Holden had been able to teach them a
great deal about corn In the few hours
he was able to devote to that subject.
One state house attache who owns
| thousands of acres in Iowa and adjoin-
| ing states declared that he felt that he
ought to go TO Ames in January and
take the course in corn judging and
cattle judging, just for his own bene-
fit in connection with his farming. An
other declared that he had learned
more in seeing Prof. Holden at work
judging corn and telling about the fine
i and he had been raising corn and eat
ing corn bread for half century.
| s*
incidentally it may be stated that,
whether there is sufficient public spiri 1t
| in Des Moines for such an enterprise or
| not, there will be corn exposition here |
next year, which it is promised will be |
a big one. This will be engineered by
| Henry Wallace the veteran student of |
/ agriculture and writer, who is arran- |
ging to send out seed corn of best va
/ reties to thousands of boys all over the
state, and surrounding states, if need |
| be, and who will offer premiums in
such large amounts and so divided up
that many will be attracted thereto. In
| fact he hopes to have thousand ex-
| hibitors here next year. This is to be
confined, however, to boys. 1t will be
q start in the right direction
The new president and vice president
of the state agricultural department are
men who will keep UP the high stand
ing of that department. w. W. Nor
row, of Alton, who has mixed in poli-
1 tics a little. is In fact, practical far
mer. He lives in town sine year ago.
but he has great farm 9 mile and