The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1910-10-26
Select Seed Corn Now.

IIOIIl TIC DtSJ lltluS vi COTll tlldl
have matured, next years seed
should be selected now. Three or
four times as much as likely will
be required should be harvested
for the purpose. A surplus when
neighbors and others wish to buy
in the spring is far preferable to
an inadequate supply for ones own
use. Carefully harvested seed corn
of any standard variety, grown to
normal maturity. is valuable prop.
erty any year. 1t will command a
profitable price about planting time
next spring. But selecting seed
for sale is not the idea which should
now be uppermost in the corn
growers mind; his special concern
should be to make sure of an album
dant stock for his own planting.
Farmers who do not make it a
practice to grow seed corn in spe
cially prepared plots will of course
90 to their fields for it. If a crop
of high quality has been produced
it is reliable source on which to
draw: otherwise it would pay to
buy seed early in the winter from
reputable corn breeders who make
high-class seed speciality. Expe-
rience indicates that it is often adj
visaole in buying seed to obtain it
as near the purchasers home as
possible, although much that has
been said for and against this prac-
tice is not well founded on fact.
What is of the greatest Importance
II any case is fully matured. sound
corn of a variety of varieties
adapted to ones general conditions.
We need to give more attention
in future to early maturity and
percentage of corn to cob than to
the minor points which corn shows
and expert judges require.
Throughout the cornbelt there is
need of earlier corns than now are
common. Almost every years
experience emphasizes the neces
sity of shortening the period re
qulred to nature the corn CROP,
Jack Frost seems to come a little
earlier each season. At any rate.
planting is often delayed to such
an extent that the crop, under tie
most favorable of subsequent con-
ditions, is unable to reach maturity
before that unwelcome nipper ap
pears. We can control the season
IN a large measure by breeding
earller-mdturing varieties. Seed
selection should be made with this
object in view. Improvement can
be effected by picking for seed
those ears which were the first to
ripen in the field.
But more important even than
increased earliness in standard
corns is the ear as unit, and apart
from the stalk. First Of all it
should be we'll developed, sound
and free from insect or fungus
marks. if it happens to be at
tached to a thick, strong, healthy
stalk, without suckers, and hangs
a little nearer the ground than the
common run of ears, with its tip
pointed slightly downward, all the |
better. But practical growers can
not afford to spend much time in IA
commercial field ferreting out ears
)r stalks in accordance with an
elaborate system of points.
Com that will terminate prompt |
y, mature comparatively early. !
and yield the largest number Of
bushels per acre is what is wanted. |
This suggests that seed selection
should be made from breeding or
special ear-to-row plots, with scales
serving as the final Judge of It's
illness.
Pick out the best ears now in the
pest fields, dry them thoroughly in
| well-ventilated shed and store
hem for the winter in a dry place