Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-04-03
Once More, Test Your Seed
Corn.

INV NAOASS AOS O Soo
Corn.
Wallaces' Farmer: We fear very
much that the corn crop in the en-
tire country, at least north of the 40th
meridian, will be short this year be-
cause of poor seed. There are sections
in the west where there is practically
no seed corn at all. Here and there
may be found a farmer who has an
early variety and took our advice who
has seed corn that is reliable.
Many farmers think their seed corn
is all right, but not having tested it,
they do not know. If they do not
test before planting they will wake
up some fine May morning and find
that the corn will not grow, or has
not grown if they have planted it.
Then the question will be: Where
will they get seed corn? If they get
an ordinary variety from the south it
will not grow unless we have an ex-
traordinarily warm and late season.
To get it anywhere else will be almost
impossible.
Farmers from Ohio westward, who
have tested their corn, are surprised
at it's weak termination. Some who
tested their corn last December are
retesting, and find that not more than
60 per cen of that which terminated
before terminates now. The fact is
that last year over almost all u ter
ritory there was a shortage of heat
units. Corn did not dry out. The
cob eve yet contains moisture, and
hence comparatively dry corn, if ex-
posed to a damp atmosphere and a
freeze follows, will be killed even yet.
We foresaw this last fall and urged
our readers to go into their corn
fields in early October, select their
seed corn or the stalk, dry it out
with artificial heat, and keep it dry.
Those who have done this will have
no trouble about seed corn. There
fore, we again raise this question, ano
hope we will not be considered i'm
pertinent if we nee more ask: Have
you tested yodr seed corn?
If youdo not have sound seed corn
and can buy corn adapted to your eli
mate, every grain Of which will grow,
buy it and count your money after
wards. Remember that a bushel Of seed
corn will plant about six acres; so
that ever if you pay five dollars a
bushel it is less than eighty five cents
an acre, Or the price of two bushels
OF corn, while the addition to the
crop will be from ten to thirty bushels
per acre over what it would be if you
planted corn of which only SO or so
! per cent will grow. There is no mat
ter Of more pressing Importance than
this just now.
Farmers in the northern section OF
our territory have all these years, and
more particularly the last two OF
three, been growing a type of corn
too large for the heat units of that
section. Remember that it is utterly
impossible to grow the large corns
that grow in central Illinois, southern
Iowa, and northern Missouri in north.
ern Illinois or northern Iowa, to say
nothing about Minnesota, Wisconsin,
and the Dakotas. You can take these
varieties north and in the course of a
few years acclimate them, but they
will not be the same type of corn that
was brought into the country in the
first place. You have not acclimated
the corn to the climate, but the eli.
mate has changed the type of the corn
to suit its conditions and made a diff.
ferent corn out of it altogether,
Therefore do not undertake to grow
a variety Of corn that demands NOR
heat units than your climate supplies
To do so is to undertake to work a
miracle. Whatever else you neglect,
don't neglect to get reliable seed corn
adapted to your location.