Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1907-04-11
TEST EVERY EAR.

| am certain there is no one thing that
will do so much to increase the
yield this year in Iowa and Illinois, as
the testing of several kernels mot less
than six) from every ear of corn in
tended for planting, discarding ali
those ears which have one or more
WEAK OR DEAD kernels. DO not say
il is too much bother and do not put it
off, for this means that IL will be neg
lected and not done at all. DO 1T NOW
Do not say my seed was harvest
ed early and does not need testing,
that il was stored where it could not
be injured" and above all do not fall
back upon that common expression
that 81 never have any trouble with
my seed corn" Do not say that you
can discard all poor ears by simply
examining the kernels with jack
knife.
THE JACK KNIFE METHOD.
have considerable sympathy for
the person who feels that he can dis
card the poor ears by the jack knife
method for | used to think ] could do
it myself, but since / have been re-
quired to prepare seed for thousands
| of acres each year, l have come to
know that it simply cannot be done.
The jack knife is good as far as il
goes, but il should be followed up
with the actual termination test of
from six to ten kernels.
BEST LOOKING OFTEN FAIL.
1t is a common expression among
those who have tested their seed that
"they were Obliged to throw out their
best looking ears"
IL should be borne in mind that
there are many ears whose kernels
will all grow, but part or all Of the
| sprouts are weak. IL is the seed from
these that gives us so many small, in
ferior ears in the fall, frequently not
half size as anyone can readily see
by looking into a crib of corn. 1t is
these which also give us many Of the
barren stalks. 1t is seed from ears
| like these that fails us in the spring
when the ground is cold and seed from
ears, part of whose kernels fail to
grow in the termination box that
gives us so many missing hills and
one-stalk hills in our corn fields. 1t
is seed from ears like these that re-
duces our yield to forty bushels per
acre or an average of one medium
ear to each hill, weighing about
thirteen ounces.
| We have not been in the habit of
testing our seed and consequently, IL
| requires unusual effort to make a
start. We should remember that we
cannot injure the seed by testing IT,,
that there can be no possible loss.
| We should also remember that when
we have once planted weak seed, there
| is practically no turning back, we
must work with it, live with it, de-
pending on it for the profits OF the
year.
SAVED WITHOUT FREEZING.
The person who harvested all Of his
seed corn during the last week of
| September and the first ten days of
October and hung it up Immediately
where it could dry out thoroughly be-
! fore the bitter cold freezes the latter
part of October and November, has
done great deal to insure good
stand of corn and the Importance of
this cannot be too strongly emphasi-
zed.
| Yet it is surprising to know how
many poor, weak ears there are, even
in seed cared for in this way. There
are so many opportunities for the
seed to become injured that it isn't
safe to conclude that it is all right be-
1 cause it was harvested and stored