The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-03-04

ton when he considers that the average yield of corn per acre in the United states is a fraction less than twenty-five bushels per acre. Again, the calculation was made that if we had only added one grain of corn more on every of corn grown in this county in 1900 there would have been added $50O0O0 to the value of our crop for that year. This being true, | thlnk. Of what we lost by growing so many ears that measured less than five inches in length. We find that one of | the most important matters in corn grow ing is to increase the length of the ear of corn. In this we should set our stan dard high and work up to it. The stan dard should be at least nine inches for length and the ears should have from eighteen to twenty-four rows each, and | the rows should have from fifty to sixty well developed grains each This will be more fully treated later on. but with this kind of a standard for a working basis we should easily bring corn crop mp to fifty bushels per acre. This ques- ton is frequently asked me: What dls- | position would you make of the other half of the acres we now have in corn?' My answer to this is: Put this land . to grass and live stock, establish a well regulated rotation of farming. placing grasses e'o--nrs and live stock In tniS rotation and above all things else, put l the dairy COW ill the rotation.
 With a well defined rotation we may have new or fresh soils at all times which to grow our various crops. We can never increase eflaer the quantity or the quality of our corn by continually planting the land to CO., Year after year, is so often the caSa
 I feel that I may able to show he reader that my positio in this matter of | increase of our corn crop IS not unreason- i able but entirely conservative.
 1 Before treating this subject further,
 think perhaps it may be well for me to state that I have always been q suc- cessfu grower of corn and take ar especial pride in what have accon,-' plished in the development of the crop.
 Money to Carry on the Work. i t is a great souGce of comfort to me 1 to know that l am no longer handicapped
 In this work for want of means to pro- { mote this great educational movement ! For. with the means now at ny com ! mand I can push the work much faster : and accomplish much lasting good. 1 The encouragement that I am receiving
 from all good people everywhere and
 th2 multiplied evidences of great results
 are such as to stimulate me to greater
 efforts in the future, for I fully realize ] the importance of the work as we'll as
 the great demand and need for it all ] over the country.
 | Now. l have my own peculiar ideas and
 methods for carrying on this work. and { my ideas seem to suit our readers and
 much good is being accomplished. I se-
 lect the tow ms to be visited. take the mat
 ter up with the people of the towns. ask
 ing that they furnish me hall free, i where the people may be seated while
 I talk to them I object to talking to people standing, as this is hard on both the people and the speaker and besides { very little impression is made on stand nQ
 exceptional cases can we get the at
 tenton of the people who are standing
 or coming and going all the time we are
 trying to talk to them. Neither do
 attempt to lecture in the car or from it.
 Where the people have not enough in- terest to furnish a hall I pass the place. ! Such places are rare, there is now scarcely a town that will not make some
 arrangement for hall.
 : I advertise in my advance flyers that after the lecture the car will be open for inspection and here I give a demon-
 stration. By this time all idlers and ! loafers have departed and I have only
 the better class of interested farmers left. As a rule a dozen good farmers who will
 leave the car, follow to a hall, sit for an nour during my lecture-and my lec-
 lures last from one to two hours-then
 follow back to the car. are worth more
 to than the hundred or even 300 peo- pl1 who usually are at the depot wait
 ing for the car to arrive.
 Length of Stay.
 i l spend usually from one to two days in a town during which time l deliver from four to eight lectures, taking up any farm subject that the people are { interested in
 ! Now I never leave my hearers in the
 dark They are supplied with set ot
 bulletins so that they may have the 1 information always at hand when needed. ] Besides this when l can get body or l intelligent farmers seated In room and have samples of corn spread before them 1 on a table and start them to asking questions, it is then that we get in work
 tha. is not only impressive but is last
 ing. I will give just one experience which Is only a sample of the many to show l the force of this plan.
 | | was hold a meeting in town on one | of our lines in Missouri l announced that
 I would talk corn improvement, seed | selection, soil, etc. There happened to live ] nearby a farmer who had moved from 1 Iowa to Missouri. So this farmer came in , and brought and placed on the table near l ly two bushel of ears of corn that he se- 1 lected for seed. Now" he said, "I want | you to judge this corn here before this
 audience of farmers and throw out dil
 ears that are objectionable according to | your idea of good seed corn.' So I threw | out about half the ears he brought in. | He then came up and taking up one ear
 at time of the refused corn. asked me
 to give my objections to each of the ears.
 After I had done so. he said that he
 had been reading bulletins on seed corn ! selection for years, but that he had 1 learned more about the selection of seed
 corn here in twenty minutes than he
 had from years of reading. So I carry the
 samples right with me, and when I talk
 corn I want to have the corn to show. | This makes 1t not only easier for the
 speaker, but more satisfactory to the lis l tener.
 The farmer alluded to here has brought | his corn crop up to seventy-five bushels
 per acre. three times the average yield | of corn in the untled States: and this. | too. was accomplished in seven years
 farm that was regarded a poor, worn i out farm when he bought it.
 l I could give many such cases that have 1 come under my observation. all of which | go to prove that my position, that of
 bringing up the average of our corn crop | to fifty bushels per acre. is well founded. | But do not wish to convey tine Idea here l that this farmer got his increased yield | of corn simply from seed selected alone. | for this would have been impossible. He | also improved his soil by the rotation re- | ferred to above. including in the rotation | the dairy COW.
 10000 Work on Frisco Streets. San Francisco. March 3-Twenty thous-