Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1907-04-11
Have YOU TESTED
YOUR SEED CORN +?
Prof. Holden OF the Iowa State College at Ames
gives timely warning to Farmers about
Testing their Seed Corn.

we'll. This has been shownin hundreds
of instances during the past three
years when the college tested approx
imately $500 samples of seed corn
sent in from all parts of the state.
However, there is another very inn
portant reason for testing even the
best cared for seed. There is Il very
marked individuality or differ
ence in ears some of them yielding nj
the rate of 20 or 30 bushels to the
acre more than others. In case of
stock, il often happens that our best
looking animals are poor breeders,
the offspring being inferior and I'M
profitable. So, too, with our corn.
Many and sometimes all Of the kerr
nels on the best looking ears produce
only weaklings. But We have this
advantage with corn, that we may
terminate several of the kernels and
thus discover the unpromising ears
and discard them, saving our labor
and land for the strong ones.
POOR SEED, POOR YIELD.
Poor seed is largely responsible for
poor stand and weak stalks, re.
ducing the yield to an average OF one
medium ear to each hill. A study oil
more than 5000 corn fields in Iowa,
during the past four years, shows
| that there is an average Of less thar
| 10 percent of stand Of corn. While
there are many fields with q 90 percent
stand and better, there Ore thous.
ands of fields with less than IS pei
cent of a stand
Anyone who will select fifty or on,
hundred of his very best ears of SEED
corn and plant them this spring in
| separate rows, side by side, putting
| three kernels in each hill and in tho fal
| harvest and weigh the corn from each
row, separately, will realize the i'm
portance OF getting rid of the poor
ears.
| POOR SEED EVERY YEAR.
The loss from planting weak SEED
and seed which fails to grow is some
thing enormous every year. On az
average, the termination tests Of the
, 6,200 samples Of seed corn sent TO she
college during the past three years
| showed 66 per cent gave strong, Wig
orous plants, Is per cent gave very
weak sprouts, while l6 per cent failed
to grow, i. O., either failed to send out
stem sprouts or root sprouts or both
When the seed was afterwards plant
ed in the field, IL was found that moi
only the l6 percent failed to come up
but that a large portion of the Is per.
cent that was weak, also failed &c
grow.
VERY POOR THIS YEAR.
AS near as / have been able TO find
out and have been over Iowa pretty
thoroughly this winter, there is not
one person in twenty on an average,
who had all his seed corn harvested
and properly stored by the 10Th OF
October. Seed corn harvested after
this time, except in some cases of very
early maturing varieties, is more or
less Injured and much of it badly in
jured, too. This is very apparent TO
any one who has judged corn at the
corn exhibits throughout the state
this winter. In many Instances, there
was not single sample in the show
that did not contain one or more ears
which we're frozen.
The danger from poor seeds partic-
ularly great, since there is u common
impression that owing TO the late fall,
the seed was well matured and there
fore safe. The fact is, the corn re-
NAMED sappy and unusually cold
freezes about the 10th OF October and
later, greatly weakened the seed Let
me appeal to you to test every ear oil
corn intended for planting and dis.
card all the weak ears.