The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-03-18
GOOD SEED.
Corn Improvement Continued

a lot of stuff printed that to nv mind
or for my use as a practical corn grower
it is not worth the paper it is written on.
The thing above all others that should
guide the practical farmer in all such
matters Is good common sense. With the
right kind of soil and the right kind of
seed bed preparation l can take the poor
est nubbin that will grow and in a few
years, by selection, can have pedigreed
variety of corn, but this is not advisable
nor practical 1t is too slow, especially
where we have good seed to select from,
! only want to show that the soil and
not the seed is the place to begin for
increasing the yield and quality of our
corn crop. On the other hand l can take
the finest pedigreed seed corn to be
found, plant 1t on many soils where corn
is being grown, give it the same cultiva-
tion as corn usually receives on such
soils and 1 will soon have nubbins. So
that farmers who are producing from
three to twenty-five bushels of poor
grade of corn need not conclude that
they will be able to increase the yield OF
their crops simply by buying somebody's
pedigreed seed corn, for If they continue
to follow their loose system of farming
the retults from the improved seed will
be disappointing. 1t is true, however,
that the yield of the crop has been in
creased a few bushels per acre the first
year by using this improved seed, but
seed saved from the crop and planted
the next year usually brings the same
old results.
One bushel of good seed corn should
plant at least six acres so that IL our
poorer class of corn growers could get
new seed that would give them one
bushel more per acre, this would give
six bushels increase from the one bushel,
but this is to say the least, doubtful
experiment and one not to be encouraged.
The better plan by far will be to assist
these poor growers with information that
will enable them to so prepare their SOILS
so as to increase their yield of twenty
five bushels to fifty bushels per acre,
, and as one bushel of seed will plant SIX
acres, this would give an increased yieio
of $50 bushels from the one bushel, In
stead of the six bushels, as is so often
the case.
This is by no means an unreasonable
statement of the case, but what can and
is being done in many sections. In this
case the farmer could well afford to pay
s. for bushel of good seed corn, in case
he could not buy it cheaper The last
summer, 1906, l produced 480 bushels OF
fine corn from one bushel of seed, and II
the man had planted my corn as directed
| am satisfied that the one bushel OF
seed would have made 900 bushels or corn
just twice as much as the fifty bushels
bushels for our average. this should be
easily accomplished. But it can only be
done by planting good seed in good soil
and giving 1t good cultivation at the
proper tim and in the right manner.
How to Select Seed Corn.
The time and place for selecting seed
corn are of greatest Importance. The
stalk should first be looked after, for
ii is very essential to breed our corn
to a certain type of stalk that will be
best suited for our section or soil.
This selection should be made while
the stalks and the blades on them are
yet green. As a rule we want stalks that
are short, strong, having short, thick
joints and long, thick blades.
Then the stalks should have the ears
set low, so that man may reach out and
not up for them in shucking.
Finding the stalk to suit our idea, the
next thing Is to examine the ear, which
should set low and should hang off from
the stalk pointing toward the ground. Ali
the better heavy ears do this. Now where
the ear seems to be large enough, slip
the shuck and begin an examination as
to the general character of the ear.
First see that the grains cover the end
of the cob completely, next see II the
ear is up to our standard, nine lnches
long and from seven to eight inches in
the length from the butt end. The ear
should carry its size well out to the tip,
and should measure two-thirdS in circum-
ference. one inch from the tip that it
does one inch from the butt end
An ear of corn measuring nine inches
in length and seven inches in circumfer-
ence is good corn, all other things being
equal; yet / think that many of our best
corn farmers can raise their standard
higher say a ten-inch ear in length with
a circumference of eight inches, the cobs
to hold from eighteen to twenty-four
rows. The rows should run straight on
the cob, the spaces between the rows
should be small the whole space wei
taken. but not too crowded. The grain
should be rather thick and wedge-shaped
and should carry it's size well down to
the cob The size of the cob is imma-
terial IL the grain is in proportion IT.
size and length to that of the cob. This
depends somewhat on season and sec
ton.
In the north where the season is short
it may become necessary to breed to
small cobs, that would dry early but in
the south where the fall season extends
well up to Christmas there is ample time
for large cobs to mature or dry out. The
long shoe-peg grains of corn usually con-
tain too much bran and chaff.
Avoid Chat.
Frequently we find grains where one
third or more of the grain is simply chan
and when this is taken off it leaves but
little of value. Ears having such grain
should be avoided. Again ears having
grains of sleek or glossy appearance
show deterioration and should be dis
carded. The broad, deep wedge-shaped
grain carrying it's size all the way to
the cob and being we'll denied at the out
err end, is the best style of grain.
There should be six kernels not over
eeven to the inch of a row, so that the
nine-inch ear, taking off an inch at each
end would leave seven inches of row,
or forty-two seed grains to the row,
eighteen rows would give 1853 seed grains
ner ear. The ten-inch ear with twenty
rows on the cob would be much better,
40 we would have eight inches OF seed
row. forty-eight seed grains to the row
~, a total of $50 seed grains to the ear,
q difference of 204 in favor of the ten
inch ear.
Rut here is another way to figure. The
nine-inch ear with six grains to the inch
ond eighteen rows to the ear will give
90 grains to the ear. The ten-inch ear
With twenty rows and six grains to the
inch gives 1900 gains, 1913 grains more per
ear than we get from the nine-inch ear.
IT is a very conservative estimate 10
Mace our loss on the corn crop OF 1903
as a result of nubbins growing, at $780,
900. 600.
After we have found our ideal stalk and
ear. and I might state here that they will
he few and far between in all crops where
No attention has been paid to breeding,