The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-04-29

Corn Special Made Hit-Dirt Road
Special Next.-Mr. G. Bosley Littig, who was
one of the principal movers in arranging Iof
the seed corn specials which were recently sent
over the lines of the Maryland and Pennsyf
vania and the Western Maryland railroads, Is
enthusiastic over the success of the movement
and the probable benefits which will result
from it, says the Baltimore Neus.
Il have received q letter from Mr.. Henry
Wallace, editor of Wdlldce's Farmer, published
at Des Moines, Iowa. said Mr.. Littig, "sta.
ting that he has read the published accounts OF
our corn special with great interest. MI. var la
lace was largely instrumental in starting the
first corn special in this country and naturally
follows closely the progress of the movements
in other states. Mr. Wallace anticipates as
do, that when the advantages OF Maryland De.
come better known through the publication OF
such matter as the corn-special stories, there
will be quite drift of Western farmers toward
Maryland. Mr.. Wallace is also interested IN
the growing of alfalfa, and thinks it would De
a profitable speculation to pick out Maryland
lands which would grow alfalfa successfully
and extend its cultivation here.
"Mr. Wallace writes me of dirt road special
which has Just been run over the Northwestern
railroad, and says it will revolutionize road
making in that part of the country, and will DO
the same here if applied to our dirt roads Il
seems to me that this would be valuable adj
iunct to our State-aid road law the operations
main arteries of suburban and rural travel.
Maryland is beginning to wake up, and
hope for great things for her in the near future.
There has already been large influx OF set
tiers here this year, but there is room for many
more It is planned to extend and develop the
special train idea. applying it to various crops:
The next one will probably be an alfalfa and
tobacco special to be run late in the summer
through Southern Maryland"
MORE ON THE SAME SUBJECT
Mr.. Horace L. Smith, assistant treasurer OF
the Mount Vernon Woodbury. Cotton Duck
Company, has written the following letter to
Mr.. Littig:
..Some weeks ago you spoke to me about
testing seed corn before planting it. and at the
time your suggestion appealed to me, so l con-
cluded that would try il l secured from
farmer friend living near my place on the
Jcppa road Hartford county, some OF the finest
seed corn that could possibly be secured. A
day or so after he sent it to me he came over
and was just arranging my bed to test the
corn, and when l told him what was going
to do he said / was only wasting time, as he
knew perfectly well that every grain OF corn
would terminate. / must confess that after
his remarks, based on his long experience, my
faith somewhat weakened, but inasmuch as
had started out to make the test l concluded
that would finish it. The result of my test
was as follows:
'Out of a test of 24O ears of corn only 100
sprouted, and out of the 100 which sprouted
only 25 sprouted very WELL So you see that
out of the 240 ears tested only one-tenth of
them sprouted at all. l have not seen my
friend to tell him this result. l find that it is
well for anyone to test seed corn before putting
it into the ground"
Mr.. T. Murray Maynadier. near Watervale,
Hartford county, informed Mr.. Littig day or
two ago that he had tested 200 ears of seed corn
which he had selected with great care. Of the
200 ears IL failed to terminate. The fact that
Co. 1n1 fno
best looking in the lot is cited as showing the
fallacy of depending entirely upon the appear
ance of the ear and the Importance of making
scientific test.