Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1907-03-29
MORE ABOUT The CORN CONTESTS.
Ihe Following from The InduStriaIist,
Will be Of Interest.

asked to plant their best ten ears of
last years raising in ten rows of
equal length. Where the available
pot of ground is not long enough the
contestant may plant twenty shorter
lows. In this case he is really max.
ing two plots, planting one.half of ear
l in row l, and then half of ear . in
w, and so on for ten rows, and
then the remaining halves in the next
lows. Thus he will be taking his
second lesson in corn breeding, not
ing in blanks, to be furnished him
later, the weight of each ear, the per
cent of termination in each row, and
the general condition of each row
through the summer. When the tas
sells begin to appear the contestants
should detassel, by pinching off, every
alternate row, to secure cross-fertiliza.
ton, using the detasseled rows as the
seed rows for the next year. To
make test of all ears the contestant
should detasSel alternate rows of the
double plot clear through; that is, de-
tassel even.numbered rows on first
half of plot and odd.numbered rows
on last half. In case he has ten long
rows he should detassel half of each
even-numbered row, and then at other
end Of plot one.half of each odd.num.
bered row, thus giving him seed 70 VS.
from each Of his ten ears. He should
also, during this ten or fifteen day
period, detassel in the breeding plot
all inferior stalks-thoSe too tall, tco
short, too thin and spindling, those
that have small root growth, those
having suckers, and those that show
no sign Of shoot, barren stalks. If
he does this, and it will not take much
time, going through the plot about
every two or three days for about ten
days, he will have some good seed
corn. Then :;he should gather bis
best ears from his best stalks from
the detasseled rows, sometime between
the middle of September and the
middle Of October, keeping separate
those from different rows. Later,
when he gathers the remainder of the
corn, he should weigh the ears from
each row, and adding the weight of
seed ears gathered ffom each row he
will have record of the producing
power of each ear. Then when he
otakes bis corn to the show he should
have each ear numbered and tagged
sothat he will know whether it is a
seed ear or not.
: Class B will include boys who en-.
ter the contest for the first time, and
the county committee may either fur
nish to each boy a quart of pure-bred
corn or, if the county had contest
last year, they may recommend that
each boy Of class B buy a quart of
corn from one who was in last years
contest, or they may buy the corn ,
from the boys of last year or else. ,
where and give 1t to the boys of class :
B. If the corn used last year was ,
reasonably satisfactory, we recon- {
mend that the same variety be used ,
this year. In some counties the corn
furnished last year was inferior. In
those cases we do not hesitate to :
recommend the purchase of better ,
corn for beth classes, giving, to the 9
boys of class A ten ears and to the ;
others one quart. Whenever faith
er has good variety Of good pre-
ducing corn it is better to permit him {
to supply his boys with seed. In all S
eases the corn should be bought near q
at home. q
These corn contests, as last year,
will culminate at the county farmers }
institute meetings, to be held between
October Is and December 90, 1907. l
There are many reasons why this de. {
partment cannot recognize contests a
held at any other time or place. The
principal reason is that the contest.
ants ar. otliged to attend at least one 4
session Of an institute, and We vant l