Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1906-03-28
Seed Corn Testing.

Seed Corn Testing.
| What farmer is there who, wher
he purchases sire to head his hero
or flock, or female to be used fol
breeding purposes, and pays good
price for the same, does not require
some guarantee regarding the abil.
ity of the animal so purchased to re.
produce itself.
Certainly no one wishes to place
in his herd an animal unless from a
breeding standpoint and in case such
a misfortune occurs he at once seeks
recourse from the one with whom
the purchase was made.
Yet how many Of us when we
plant our corn in the fields so care
fully prepared for the reception of
the seed, have fully guarantee to
ourselves that the seed is all capable
of reproducing itself?
In the case of the high priced sire
or female we know just what the
loss is should the animal prove
worthless. On the other hand hav.
we ever stopped to estimate how
much we lose in years crop by
planting unproductive seed?
have before me an ordinary siz-
ed ear Of corn from which | have re-
moved the butt and tip kernals Just
as | do when preparing my corn for
planting. find that this ear has
twenty rows and there still remains
in each row an average Of forty-one
kernels, making approximately, eight
hundred twenty kernels for seed
purposes. 1t takes about ninety
such ears to make bushel of seven
ty pounds, and we count on bush
Ell planting at least six acres.
Now suppose that one ear such as
the one have before me in every
bushel of our seed corn is useless
if we test every ear of our seed corn
we will probably find more than one
per bushel that will not grow-that
will mean eight hundred twenty ker-
nels Of corn scattered over six acres
Of ground. A good vital kernel
shonld produce strong stalk and a
good sized ear.
Now we have it. By not fully
guaranteeing to our own minds that
every ear Of our seed corn was vital
we have in this instance caused a
loss to our own cribs Of eight hun
dred twenty ears of corn for every
six acres or about nine bushels, and
this caused by just one ordinary ear
being unable to reproduce itself.
The loss per acre III this instance
would pay us for our entire time
spent in testing every ear OF corn we
have stored way for seed.
feel safe in saying that unless
extra precautions were exercised last
fall in gathering and storing seed
corn it will be discovered, when
every ear of it is tested, that there
will be more than one ear in every
bushel which will have to be fed to
the hogs or horses. Some ears will
be found that are good in spots, some
good on one side and bad on the
other. BY good or bad mean that
the kernels will germinate or not
germinate. Some will throw out
such weak sprouts that it will not
be wise to keep the car for seed.
| In testing our seed corn we use a
box about two feet long by one foot
six inches wide and four inches
deep. This we fill nearly full Of
earth and over that place about an
inch of we'll decayed sawdust. After
butting and tipping our corn, we ar
range it on the floor around the
sides Of room in the house put.
ting down about two-hundred ears
Then we number some narrow strips
of stiff paper consecutively from one
to as many ears as we have laid out
i Going to the corn arranged on the
floor we begin with an ear at one
corner of the room and take out
three or four kernels in spiral or
der from tip to butt. This gives us
a fair test Of the kernels on all sides
Of the ear.
We place these kernels in the box
pressing them into the saw.dus
deeply enough to be well covered
then press the strip of paper witt
number corresponding TO number o
ear from which the kernels were tax
en- into the sawdust just at the enc
of the row of kernels we have ius
buried. We continue this wa,
with kernels from otherears in regu
lar order and the slips with CORES
ponding numbers until the opposite
side of the box is reached, when We
start new row as we did at first
leaving a little space between tn,
rows. Of course the numbers Oh
the paper are left high enough ou
of the sawdust so that they can b,
. seen at all times. This method il
followed until kernels from all thu
! ears are placed in the box, then til,
, sawdust and soil are dampened anc
, the box placed where it will not b.
molested until all the kernels hav,
, had time tosprout.
A box thus fixed represents abou
two bushels Of seed so you see
doesn't take long to run through tn
whole lot. Two or more boxes cal
r be kept going if necessary.
Before taking the kernels out O
!. the box we write on sheet of pape
= as many numbers consecutively (be
| ryinninr, with ~ n, ,,,o have o,,,