The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-04-22
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
ARE FARMERS GETTING THE BENEFIT
THEY SHOULD?
A School Girl Heard Corn Lecture and
Makes a Successful Test
of Seed Corn.

THEY SHOULD?
A School Girl Heard Corn Lecture and
Makes a Successful Test
of Seed Corn.
FORK. Nd, April II, 1905.
Messrs. Editors I'm recent issue of THE
UNION noticed that one of our agricultural
clubs was about to discuss the question as to
whether the farmers are getting the benefit they
should from the agricultural experimental sta
tions. wish to answer very emphatically that
they are not. This is not the fault of the ex-
detrimental stations but of the farmers them
selves. Every farmer who pays taxes does so to
help keep up these colleges and stations. Every
thing done at these stations and farms are fully
set forth in bulletins issued, these bulletins
being mailed to every farmer of the State who
will send his name and address to the superin-
tendent. For Maryland it should be sent to the
Maryland Agricultural College, College Park,
Nd. with instructions to put the same on the
mailing list of the Experiment Farm, and also
the Chemical Department.
One of the greatest losses the Maryland farmers
are subject to is in the purchase of fertilizers
We have one of the best fertilizer laws of any
State, and if our farmers would avail themselves
of the information contained in the bulletins
lSSuoQ oVOfy AUGUST dl1u ICDEudIy w AOhs -
B. Mcdonnell they would be many thousand
dollars better on. The law requires that each
manufacturer shall guarantee how much plant
food is in his brand of goods by stamping on the
bag the per cent. of ammonia, phosphoric acid
and potash, and the law provides that the farmer
can have his fertilizer analysed free of cost by
the State Chemist, Prof. Mcdonnell, and if it
does not contain the quantities guaranteed, the
farmer is not required to pay any part of the
bill. If he has paid it he can recover the whole
amount by suit.
have been selling fertilizers for the past
seven years and know that there has never been
a season when nearly every manufacturer runs
behind the guarantee of some of his brands. 1t
is just as fair that the manufacturer of fertili-
zers who defrauds the farmer by selling less
plant food than is bargained for as it is for the
farmer to lose his entire lot of butter in market
If the market-maste finds, in weighing the
butter, that it is light weight. have seen per-
sons lose their butter in this way. 1t may not
have been light weight Intentionally, and per-
haps the manufacturers may not now intend to
defraud, but the farmer, all the same, gets less
than he pays for. If the farmers would make
the manufacturers lose their bills this spring
they would be sure to have next falls goods
"down weight or chock full' of what they
agreed to put in. wish the people who buy
from me would avail themselves of this law
Sometimes as much as two to three dollars
worth of plant food is short in ton.
Less sense is displayed in buying fertilizers by
at least 90 per cent. of farmers than in anything
else they do. Perhaps 8 to per cent. of the
farmers buy intelligently by using the analysis
as found by the State Chemist. These care
nothing for the samples the fertilizer agent
shows them, but rely entirely on the results of
Prof. McDonnell's analysis, and they avoid those
brands that habitually run behind their guaran-
tee. The majority think ton is a ton and will
pay as much for one ton as another. The same
farmers would not pay as much for bushel of
small potatoes as large ones; neither could they
sell the fertilizer manufacturer small potatoes
for as much as large ones because the latter do
not buy "pig in bag" as do nearly every
farmer when he buys fertilizers. Let us make
the fertilizer manufacturer give what he agrees
to, or confiscate his goods; then send our names
to the Agricultural College for all bulletins and
get our share of the things they find out there
for us.
wish to congratulate THE UNION on having
published that most excellent article in its issue
of March 25th, on how Mr.. Samuel H. Woods, of
Virginia, grows corn. There is no telling what
can be raised on piece of ground by improved
methods of preparing the ground, testing the
seed, and the improved way of cultivating will
largely increase the yield. The man in Colorado
who won the 800 prize for the most sugar in an
acre of sugar beets, offered few years ago by
the american Agriculturist. rubbed and narrowed
his ground fourteen times before planting.
Most of us would have narrowed it about twice.
One of the first results of the Corn Special"
over the Maryland s. Pennsylvania Railroad is
the testing of some corn by Miss Grace Riddle,
IA years old, who heard the corn talk at Baldwin
Station, she having been permitted to leave
school to hear it. She tested number of ears,
fixing them as Prof. Shamel directed, and when
they sprouted the result was as he said-about
so per cent. poor ears. The best ears had longer
and stronger sprouts, and every grain sprouted,
whereas the poor ones were weak and some not
sprouted at all. This experimental test is so
satisfactory that shall test all my seed corn, as
It is so simple and easy to do. bed of wet
sawdust in box with cloth laid off in blocks
about two inches square, numbered from one
up, and the six grains taken from each ear and
laid in the square corresponding to the number
that the ear Is. Then cloth laid over the grains
to keep them in place and bag of sawdust on
top; put in the kitchen for six to eight days
and you can then see the poor and good ears.
AS about IL good ears will plant an acre you
will have to test "a ears for each acre to be
planted, as half you will want to discard
after you see they don't sprout WELL Two
grains from tip, centre and butt taken from OPP
posite sides make up the six grains to be tested
from each ear. Thus testing and taking the
strong. quick sprouting ears will result in
quicker and better stand of corn and much
larger growth, as the weak, small stalks and
small corn comes from the slow, weak, geTme-
mating seed. W. H. RIDDLE.