Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-10-09
SOME NOTES
OfInterest to Farmers and Truckers


creasing annually and promises to soon
become an important industry through
out this State.
75, 600 barrels of apples were shipped
from the United States and Canada to
Europe last year. The freight averages
so cents barrel, and the apples sell
well. Good fruit only is wanted, and
red apples are preferred.
Round potato seed for spring planting
are being bought in Aroostook county,
Maine, in large quantities by East Vir-
ginia farmers, deliveries to begin in
November. The drought in September
badly damaged the home crop and a
small yield is expected.
The condition of corn on September
1st was 79.4 per cent of a normal;
spring wheat when harvested TIC per
cent; oats, 69.7 per cent, says the crop
report issued by the Department of
Agriculture. Other crops September
1st, average condition: Potatoes, 1877;
tobacco, S4.3; apples 52.3; hay, prellm-
mary estimate of yield per acre, 1.52
tons. A total production of 81, 743, 900
tons of hay is thus indicated as COM
pared with 63, 677, 900 in 1907.
The money value of last years cot
ton crop was nearly seven hundred mil
hon dollars, and if the value of the cot
ton seed be added to this it counts up
the amazing figure of almost eight
hundred million dollars. A few years
ago the question was seriously debated
as to whether cotton could be profitably
raised for six cents a pound. If that
was the margin then, the present
profit, assuming that it cost no more to
raise it now than sixteen years ago,
must be good. Virginia grown cotton
was put on the market at Petersburg
this week.
SELECTING SEED CORN.
BY far the most important crop grown
in Virginia is corn. Its total valuation
is more than four times as great as
tobacco. In 1906 Virginia produced
As. 1873, 900 bushels which, valued at 60
cents per bushel, was worth $27, 112, =
10000. We have unexcelled natural
advantages for corn culture, but our
average yield per acre is far below our
possibilities, being now about "a bushels
per acre as compared with AZ bushels in
Ohio, and 80 bushels in Iowa. We can
greatly increase our yield by better
methods of culture, and by using better
seed. We have just received from the
Virginia Agricultural Experiment Sta
tion, Blacksburg, Va, circular No. 4,
Selecting Seed Corn" by Lyman
Carrier, which gives detailed informa-
tion upon this subject. The common
practice oftaking seed corn at random,
from ears stored in the crib, is largely
responsible for low yields. 1t is not
enough to select the largest and most
perfect ears; these ears should have
been borne by the most desirable plants,
So it is best to select seed-corn now
while the ear is on the stalk. Choose
the largest and most perfect ears, wei
filled out at butt and tip, and with
long, wedgeshaped kernels; borne low
down upon stout, medium-size, short
| jointed plants. Prefer plants bearing
two large ears. Store the ears il
strings of fifteen, in dry, warm, we'll
ventilated place. as a room over tn,
kitchen. A little care in these respect
] often increases the yield five or NOR,
bushels per acre. An increase of ever
one bTshel per acre next year in Vir
ginia, as result of careful selection o
seed, would add over 81 900, 600 to tn,
wealth Of the State, with no extra cos
of fertilizing or cultivation. This is on,
of the most important subjects befor
the farmers of the State. This circula
can be had by making application to tn
Virginia Agricultural Experiment Sta
tion, Blacksburg, Va.