The Oskaloosa herald., 1905-01-19
|, Weld of "a bushels per acre.

stations of the seven leauing corn
states ofstne union show most force,
fully the great differencein the yields
Of dinerent varieties of corn and
should convince every corn grower
that it will pay him to make as care
full selection OF the variety of corn he
uses for seed as he would of a bull to
head a pure bred herd.
The tests made at the experiment
stations were all made with standard
varieties of corn that had been bred
up sufficiently to be named. If the
mixed corn taken with little selection
from the crib such as is used by some
farmers for seed had been tried, the
profits from using a well bred variety
of corn for seed would have been
shown even more strikingly.
The difference in yield and quality
between a carefully bred variety OF
corn like Reds Yellow Dent and com.
mon corr is as great as the difference
in speed between the great thorough
bred Dan Patchen, with a record OF
1854, and the broken down horse
that pulls a peddler's cart, or the diff.
ference in feeding quality between
the champion steer, Shamrock, of the
Iowa Agricultural college and a long
horned Texan.
Every test Of pure bred corn shows
an increase in yield over that secured
from ordinary feed. A few examples
will show how great this increase is.
Professor w. H. Stevenson, of the
Iowa Agricultural college, found that
a renter planted half his field with
well bred corn and half with ordinary
seed. The we'll bred corn had so per
cent less barren stalks and yielded
sixteen bushels nor per acre.
A farmer planted eighty acres with
pure bred corn and the rest of his
farm with ordinary corn. The pure
bred corn yielded twenty bushels per
acre the more. The seed cost $25
and the net profit due to the quality
of the pure bred seed alone was 5000.
Professor A. D. Shamel, the Illinois
corn expert, reports that a farmer was
induced to secure enough improved
seed to plant 300 acres. These 300
acres outyielded all the other fields
on the farm more than thirty bushels
per acre. This made an increase of
5000 bushels, worth that season $4,-
900. There was no extra cost for cul-
tivation, and this gain was the profit
from pure bred seed alone.
A farmer secured enough pure bred
seed corn to plant eighty acres. He
raised twenty-five bushels more per
acre on this field than where ordinary
seed was used.
Professor P. G. Holden, the highest
authority in the world on corn, in
creased the yield twelve bushels per
acre on 1000 acres Of corn by the
careful selection for planting of even
sized kernels of high bred corn. Well
bred corn can be used for years on
these farms and high yields secured.
Professor Holden made this increase
to In already high yield simply by
his selection of kernels.
The work of the experiment sta.
lions and every trial on farms shows
that planting high bred seed that has
been properly cared for will increase
the yield of corn from twelve to thir-
ty bushels and upward per acre with
out any increase in the cost of rails.
ing.
The gain in yield made by using
pure bred seed is clear profit. 1t costs
the same to prepare the ground, plant
the seed and to cultivate the corn
where pure bred seed is used as II
does when common corn Is used. A
bushel Of seed. corn will plant eight
acres. An increase of twenty-five
bushels an acre will give a gain Of
200 bushels Of corn from a bushel Of
pure bred seed. Is there anything in
farming that will give a greater pei
cent of profit than the use Of good
seed corn?
The United States department o.
agriculture made a test in ten states
and found that fire dried seed corr
produced from 7 to 1874 bushels more
per acre than carefully air dried SEED
of the same variety. At harvest time
there were 1914 per cent more stalk
from fire dried seed and the yield pei
stalk was more than s per cent great
er. The corn grower who fire dried
his sed corn last fall is fortunate. ThC
one who did not al greatly benef'
the seed he has if it is still in gooC
condition if he will keep it dry ant
cool, using a little heat in damn
times as suggested in this article.
H. NJ. Cottrell.