Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-02-17
Professor Holden Talks About
Selection of seed---C. r. Lynch
Of Vienna, President
MERRITT eREENE,JR, SECRETARY
Township Directors Are Not Elected,
Instead an Executive Committee of
Three is chosen-Friday Afternoon
Meeting and Address by p. Low,
Chaplain Jesse Cole and A. l.. Ames

The first days meetings of the
farmers institute ended with the ad-
dress of Professor p. G. Holden, OF
Iowa State College, on the Gospel OF
Good Corn" given in the evening be-
fore the largest audience of the day
At the afternoon meeting officers, in
Guiding an executive committee, were
elected, and addresses We're given by
A. l.. Ames, president of the Corn Belt
Meat Producers Association of Iowa
Chaplain Jesse Cole, of the Soldiers
was read by T. P. Low, of Green
Mountain.
Professor Holden, accompanied by a
half dozen Of the Iowa State College
students and assistant professors and
Secretary Wells, of the Iowa Grain
Dealers Association, arrived on the
seed corn special" over the Great
Western at o'clock. Twenty minutes
later Mr.. Holden arrived at the east
court room, and had his charts in place
ready to begin.
was before the audience. He confined
himself to discussion of the selection
care, testing and grading Of seed corn
Altho this subject has been presented
here before, there is no one who is able
to give it as well as Professor Holden
He makes his subject a personal one
with every corn grower in his audi
ence, and puts human interest into the
growing of good corn. Despite the hum
dreds of times he has repeated his part
of his gospel" he spoke with the en-
thusiasm of first timer" He has
lot of live illustrations at hand to
emphasize his talk AS Professor
Holden puts it II shall continue to
preach the gospel of good corn until
a few of the essential things necessary
to a larger stand and better corn are
generally observed"
Professor Holden said the greatest
cause for poor yields was a poor
stand, stalks that yield only small ears
and stalks that yield nothing, that
just fooled around all summer doing
nothing" Poor stands, he said were
caused usually by poor and improperly
selected seed Good Or bad stands
represent the difference in the
amount of barrens put into the buSl-
ness. OF the $500 samples of seed
corn received from the farmers of the
state by the college during the last
year. he said large per cent of 1t,
when tested, was worthless yet farm
ers had been planting it,
Touching on imported seed he said,
Don't send away for imported seed
corn. We,' referring to the college.
haven't found a single variety that
has yielded as we'll as varieties which
have been grown by farmers in this
county for years"
He then explained in detail the Sc
lection of seed, and it's test, by taking
six kernels from each ear, placing
them between layers of water-soaked
sawdust in a box, and allowing time
for them to sprout. The ears repre-
sented by the kernels that did not or
that threw off weak sprouts were dis
carded. The good ears were kept,
shelled, and graded, and the seeder
tested to insure an even dropping of
the grain.
The seed corn special" arrived in
the city from the south, the last stop
before reaching here being made at
Melbourne. The special left the city
this morning at S:45 o'clock, and
stopped at Green Mountain for the
first address TODAY.
Morning Meeting, Incorporation"
Cooperation, discussed from various
standpoints, filled the morning session
and followed the paper on Farmers
Cooperation" by j. l.. Wylie, of Gill
man. Mr.. Wylie took up the subject
more especially regarding the cooper
alive grain business, handling it from
the experience gained thru the Coop
erative grain company which the farm
ers about Gilman have After he fin
ished the subject was discussed freely
and widely divergent opinion were ex-
pressed.
Friday Afternoon Session.
The first business taken up at the
Friday afternoon meeting, which was
really the first session of the institute,
was the election of officers. Those
elected were recommended by the
mominatin committee, and there were
ed We're:
President &C. R. Lynch, Vienna
township.
Secretary and Treasurer % Merritt
Greene, Jr., Marshalltown.
Executive ommittee-Herbert Eek
les, Taylor township; j. L. Wylie,
Greencastle township, and W. H. Will