The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1904-12-29
CARE OF SEED CORN.
How the Vitality and Nutriment Of
the Seed May Be Best Pre-
served in Winter.

After having been properly grown and
selected, seed corn may be greatly re-
duced in vitality by iniudicious care
during the winter. 1t is the vitality Of
the seed and the nutriment stored in the
seed that sustains the young plants dur
ing their first week Of growth, and the
success of a crop depends much upon
the vigor with which the young plants
begin growth. By those who take pains
to select seed in the fall, not many Sc
rious mistakes are made regarding its
the seed as good treatment as they
might easily do, says c. P. Hartley, Of
the United States department OF agri-
culture. Any means that secures a thor
ough drying of the seed ears soon after
they ripen, before freezing weather, and
keeps them dry until the seed is planted,
will be success. &
1t must be remembered that although
seed corn is thoroughly dried it will
not remain so if exposed to a saturated
atmosphere. The kernels absorb mois-
ture, and If exposed to changes in tenn
perature while moist, their vitality will
be injured. A thorough drying of seed
ears by artificial heat If necessary, and
their preservation in dry atmosphere
and at steady temperature, is strongly
recommended. In 1901 seed dried by
fire and kept dry and at steady temper
allure during the winter was planted, In
comparison with seed from the same
fields which was suspended in barns at
husking time and left exposed to at
mospheric conditions.
The tests were made on different soils
and In different states by planting ten
acre patches, SO that the well-preserved
or f1re-dried seed was planted in alter
nate rows with the air-dried seed. There
was no perceptible difference in the ra-
Ipidity of termination; 709 per cent. of
the air-dried and 1873 per cent. of the
hre-dried seed grew and survived.
These percentages were obtained by
counts made after the plants were about
eight inches high. A count made at
harvest time proved that the stalks had
increased by growth of suckers 1877 per
cent. in the air-dried rows and 29,4 per
cent. in the f1re-dried rows. The crop
from each row was weighed carefully.
and in all cases each fire-dried row pro-
duced more and better corn than the air.
dried rows on either side of It,
lne greatest difference was on good
soil on the Potomac river bottoms,
where the fire-dried seed produced 18A
bushels more corn per acre. the average
yield from the f1re-dried rows being
1858 bushels of ear corn per acre, In
comparison with 67.34 bushels from the
air-dried rows. Although all the rows
were planted by hand with three ker-
nels in every hill and terminated al
most equally well, as above shown, at
harvest time the fire-dried rows con-
tanned 12.5 per cent. more stalks than
the air-dried rows. This, however was
not the leading cause for the increased
production, for the total average pro-
duction per stalk in the fre-dried rows
was 0.672 pound, as compared with
O.618 pound per stalk from air-dried
seed.
On upland clay soil fre-dried seed
produced 1892 bushels per acre, while
the air-drted seed produced 56.8S, a diff
ference Of seven bushels in favor of the
seed that had special care taken of It
during the winter. While 1t may not
be practicable for all growers to keep
their seed corn throughout the winter
by means Of fire, 1t is possible for all to
dry the seed ears thoroughly in the fall
and then place them where they will re-
main dry.