The Oskaloosa herald., 1910-04-14
AND now AGAIN
TEST SEED CORN
$50,000,000.00 can be Added Il
Iowa's Wealth by so Doing,
ITS SIMPLE AND INEXPENSIVE
An Increase of Ten Bushels Per Acre
viii Mean Total Increase
For the State Of 100000
Bushels.


and such an undertaking sounds i'm.
probable, but 1t can be accomplished
in very easy manner. 1t can be
done simply by testing the seed corn.
Such process is neither expensive
nor laborious. All 1t takes is a little
time and care. If It is to be done by
every farmer in the state, the aver
age production of corn could be in
creased 10 bushels per acre,
There are 10000, 900 acres Of corn
land in Iowa. An increase Of 10 bur
shells to the acre would mean total
increase Of 100, ooo, 600 bushels for the
state. The average price Of corn is
fifty cents per bushel SO that the
100, ooo, 600 bushels Of corn would be
worth sso,ooo,ooo
Every Bad Ear Costs $3.50.
Take as an illustration one ear of
corn and see what the effects would,
be If it were a bad ear.
An ear of seed corn contains about
1000 kernels and each kernel plant
ed should produce stalk. Each
stalk should produce an ear.
A dead ear planted means the loss
of 1000 stalks and consequently 1000
ears. There are eighty ears to the
bushel, which means the loss of 1874
bushels Of corn. AS stated before with
corn worth fifty cents per bushel the
loss in dollars and cents would be
| $3.50, on account of one single ear
that was bad.
Had the farmer planted good ear
instead of a bad ear he could well
afford to have paid at least $500 for
one single ear of corn and then had
good profit left.
For S. he could have bought bu.
shell or more of good seed corn, or he
could have tested the ears before
planting without it costing him any
thing.
Apply the same illustration on a
larger scale and see what 1t means.
Suppose a farmer was going to plant
a 100 acre farm with seed corn that
had not been tested.
1t takes 81 bushels or 1880 ears of
seed corn to plant 100 acres, and sup.
pose the farmer takes his seed from
the 1909 crop. Over half of it will
not terminate or grow. This means
he has planted $40 ears that are
worthless. If these ears had been
good they would have produced S40,'
600 ears or 10000 bushels of corn
worth $3.50.
Could the farmer afford to throw
away such a sum of money, when he
could have saved it by the simple pro
cess of testing and planting only
good ears?
Adds to Farmers Wealth.
The importance of testing the seed
corn cannot be overestimated, for it
not only saves a great loss to the far
mer, but will add very materially to
his individual wealth and vast sum
to the farmers of the state as a
whole.
1t is a business proposition to the
farmer and should be treated with
equal Importance Fifty million dol
lars more per year to the Iowa far
| mer means fifty million dollars more
per year to the Iowa retailer, manu-
facturer, wholesaler, jobbcr and every
other kind of business man. 1t Is &C
child within the borders of the state
should boost for it, talk about it
work for it, and above all see tha
every farmer does it.
In discussing the subject, Prof. P
tG. Holden, of the Iowa State College
at Ames says:
IF could give one order that would
be carried out by every farmer In
the state, it would be to make a thor
ough termination test Of at least siI
kernels from each ear of seed corr
intended for planting"
How to Study Corn Yield.
If the value of Prof Holdens ad
vice needed any proof, the careful
study of most any corn field woult
give it. Select a field of good corr
and 60 through It, carefully counting
the missing hills, the hills with ONLY
one or two stalks and the stalks tina
have produced no corn. This kind o.
an investigation will show how grea
Is the need of planting only the bes
tested corn. Recently the Iowa STATE
College made careful count of thu
number of stalks per hill in 1000 rep
resentative corn fields In the state
It found in some cases less thar
forty per cent Of a stand and the av
erage was hardly &C per cent, not in
GLIDING the weak and unproducini
stalks.
Just think what that means. II
1000 fields of corn one-third of tn,
ground was not producing thing
worse than idle because 1t had to bt
cultivated the same as the GROUND
that was producing corn. .f
Had these same farmers PLANTED
tested seed corn and secured per
feet stand they would have increased
their yield 20 to 40 bushels per acre
and they would have done 1t at abso
iutely no increased cost OF money Of