Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1905-04-06

Selecting Seed Corn.

When harvesting seed corn close atten
| ton should be paid to the selection of the
mer cannot make as careful selection as
he can after the ears have dried out thor
ough!y. The selecting and grading of the
seed in the spring should not be left until
the rush Of spring begins. If left until
then there is danger that the work will be
hurriedly t; done. 1t is best to do the seIec
time the corn is thoroughly dry and the
farmer has more leisure time than at any
other period. To select well one should
nave plenty of room and work slowly aud
carefully.
The first, step is to lay the ears out in
rows on planks or tables, or if these are
not available they may be laid on the
| floor. Then the best ear should be Sc
lected and with this :in hand. or a more
perfect ear in mind, the rows of ears
that do not conform to the ideal in size,
color or uniformity of kernels. When the
Iau!ty ears, as Judged from outward ap-
| three kernels should be taken out of each
remaining ear and laid germ side up in
front of 1.-THE the ear. from which they were
mind, or better, with one in hand, the ears
| should be gone over again and those ker-
nels which do not conform to the ideal
should be discarded. In yellow corn any
mixed kernels should be taken out before
Smelling as they are more easily seen on
the the ear 1t;, In ~ white corn they should be
more readily seen then.
This process. of selection will greatly re-
duce the number of ears. For this reason
much seed 'a IN the fail fail as ffn he has any ins
tention of using.
Fl TESTING SEED CORN.
After the seed ears have been carefully
selected as to character. of both ear and
mination. Testing each ear separately
seems at first too big task to undertake,
put experience shows it to be practicable.
factory The ears @ are as FIRST Rrefi laid out on
table or floor. By driving nails after each
tenth ear it will only be necessary to num-
TINS has been done remove one kernel
from near the butt middle and tip of the
ear. Turn the ear over and remove three
kernels in like manner from the opposite
side, making six kernels in ALL thus Sc
CURING a sample from the entire ear.
Place the six kernels at the end of the ear
that the kernels do not get mixed with
the kernels from the ear lying next to it,
Take shallow box about two by three
feet in size, put several inches of moist
sand, dirt or sawdust in the bottom, place
over this cloth which has been ruled off
into squares one and one-half inches each
Place the kernels from ear No. in square
No. |, from ear No. 2 in square no 2and so
on with all the. ears. Always place the
Kernels germ side up, as this makes it
easier to see Just how strong the ge1mi-
nation of each kernel reallyis. Now place
over this cloth considerably larger than
two inches of sand, earth or sawdust,
moisten well, keep in a warm place, and
tn the J kernels iI will I gerrninate in from three
been allowed for the kernels to germinate,
| remove the cover carefully to avoid mis-
| placing the kernels. "a piece of light
! the top covering is pat on will prevent the
kernels from sticking to the cloth). Ex-
| anime the kernels in the first row of The
kernels in squares No. 1, S. 10 and 20 have
failed to grow or show weak termination,
be rejected. Do not fail to remove the ears
showing weak termination. If the ground
is cold and the weather unfavorable in
the spring these kernels will rot. or if they
grow at all. will produce weak plants.
The above method is inexpensive and
termination boxes can be prepared for
eTTns Thiss any aoune mo mI OF corn d reaulred red
more than three thousand acres by the
above method. Each day one man ger
minated on an average, enough to plant
thirty acres.
The advantage of this method of testing
over the old one of taking kernel from
each of 100 ears and mixing them up be-
fore testing is easily seen. By this method
if few kernels fail to gerininate. the ears
from which they were taken may be dis
carded, while by the old method they
would have to be retained even though
the entire ear might be of no use for seed.
The value OF such a test as the one Just de-
scribed cannot be emphasized too strong
ly as it enables the farmer to plant seed
which he knows will grow if other condi-
tionS arS favorable.
GRADING SEED CORN AND CELEBRATING
PLANTER.
After the seed ears have been selected
from general appearance of the ear and
kernel and for their terminating quanti-
ties they are ready to be graded for the
and tipped. This is done for two reasons.
In the first place butt kernels and tip ker
pels produce less than middle kernels and
in size and shape that the planter cannot
drop them evenly. Each ear should now
be slielled byitself as this. gives an op-
portunity to discard ears with broken or
injured kernels not discovered in previous
examinations. 1t also gives an opportun-
ity to grade the Kernels into large, me-
quired number OF kernels in each hill.
In grading large quantity of corn fire.
quently five or six grades can be profit
ably be made Even in few bushels of
well selected corn we are likely to tind
broad thin Kernels broad thick kernels,
haps one or two other distinct types. In
shelling one man can turn the shelter and
put the ears in, second man can catch
each ear by itself in large shallow pan
as it comes through and after little prac-
tice can tell at glance to which grade it
belongs. Have a box for each grade.
While these kernels differ widely in shape
they are all good. They possess strong
vitality. as shown by the gerrnination
test, and will in all probability produce
vigorous reproducing stalks. Still ii
VIII not be good practice to shell them to-
getLer as the planter could not success
fully handle kernels of such widely differ
ent types.
Before any considerable amount of any
one grade is shelled, it is advisable to test
the planter and adapt the grade as far "a
carefully done Very little work will be re-
quired in celebrating or filing the plates
When the different grades have been
made up they should be placed in sack
and hung. up in a dry. well ventilated
place until planting time.
Opportunity.