Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-01-31
SEED CORN SPECIALS"
Travelling Institutes For Instruct
 ing Farmers In Planting.
LECTURES DELIVERED ON TRAINS

to Help Farmers In Illinois, Ne-
 braska and Iowa to Increase Their Yield of Corn. Because the Burlington railway is a
 corn fed road W. H. Manss, it's indus
 trial commissioner, is running seed
 corn specials through Illinois. Nebras-
 ka and Iowa, says the Chicago News.
 A seed corn special is temporary mer- | ger of a great railroad and an agri- cultural school; 1t is a farmers insti- 1 tute on wheels.
 Two or more long passenger coaches
 transformed into lecture rooms, a cou-
 pie of private cars for the faculty, a locomotive with an engineer aboard | who knows all the sidings, "Y's," jerk
 water lines, branches. feeders and main | lines which traverse the corn belt, half
 score of professors and agricultural experts. several railroad officials and
 train crew hungry for. hard work and
 used to it go toward the making of this high geared section of the agricul- 1 tural department of a state university Just now the Burlington's seed corn | special is serving the corn raisers of | Illinois. Later on it goes to Iowa.
 Last month it was in commission six days and 108OO Nebraska corn huskers | damned its lecture cars, and part of l that time an old fashioned Nebraska
 blizzard was trying to blow the train off the rails.
 Some one told Industrial Commission CT Manss last fall that if but one ker-
 nel could be added to every ear of corn | In the United States the national yield l of that cereal would be increased 2OOO,-
 GOO bushels. Being railroad man, he
 asked. Whats the matter with adding
 100 extra kernels to every ear of corn
 along our right of way?'
 A professor of agriculture remarked
 that any farmer could get that result
 if he only would select his seed corn | as they do it at the agricultural expert
 ment station of western state univer- sites.
 Increased corn yield means increased l freight business. So it was not long
 before the Burlington road and the University of Nebraska had coupled up on the proposition to spread the gospel | of scientific selection of seed corn
 among the farmers of Nebraska. Then
 for week large proportion of the corn raisers of that state rode on
 passes. This novel experience was one of the rewards received for attending l the unique school. At Lincoln two passenger coaches were taken in hand. Seats were knocked out in one end of each car and platforms for the lec- turers were built in the made spaces. The professors took possession of the cars, hung diagrams, huge photographs
 and samples of all kinds of corn around the platforms and festooned the select
 ed engine with cornstalks and nubbins | in string.
 Every station agent. minor railroad | official and travelling passenger agent | in that section of the land was pressed
 into service to tell the farmers about the coming of the corn special. Long
 before "Manss' corn booster." as the
 train was called, was ready to start
 every farmer in the southeast quarter | of Nebraska south of the placid Platte
 or north of that elongater water
 film knew just when the seed corn spe-
 cial would pass his way. Certain corn
 shipping centers were selected for the
 lecture points. From ten to thirteen speaking stops were made each day.
 and at every place two and sometimes | three lectures were delivered simul- taneously, for often both cars were
 damned and an overflow meeting had
 to be held around the cannon stove in
 the railway station.
 The special stopped to pick up farm
 CTS at stations between the speaking
 points. Where the run was long enough to give the necessary half hour the
 seed corn talk was given on the way.
 The ''pickups" then were handed passes back to their home towns.
 What strangely impressed city man
 who was one of the specials party in Nebraska was the eagerness to learn
 something new manifested by the ma
 jority of the corn raisers who heard the lectures. Farmers drove over the
 wind swept roads fifteen and twenty
 miles. faced below zero gale blowing
 forty miles an hour and slept all night in q railroad station just to listen to thirty minute talk on the proper selec- tion of seed corn. Many of them were of foreign birth. and the city man learned that most of them had been in this country but few years. They
 wanted to learn all they could and were not ashamed to admit it.
 All these foreign born Nebraska as prosperous. They cheerfully admit ted they were getting along" and pointed to their well fed. well groomed horses and brand new green high sided farm wagons. to their piano box bug
 ;ics. with speedy roadsters in the shafts. and to the fact that cigars and not coTncob pipes are the proper thing in Nebraska these days.
 At little station. which. however. possessed four busy grain elevators. a cream coIoresf automobile flashed down the road. Its occupant was enveloped in q magnificent fur coat. It hadn't cost a cent less than s2s1 On his head was an expensive sealskin cap. and seaiskin gauntlefs made paws of his hands. The
 machine. attracting no particular atten- ton from the farmers grouped on tf's
 piatfoynl- swept up 10 the siding els
 which the train stool. stopped. and the