Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1910-03-31
THE HOLDEN SPECIAL
In COUNTY YESTERDAY
Seed Corn Gospel Expounded BY
Experts From Iowa's Great State
College Up At Ames.


The most important part of the Audi
bon talk was that where Professor Bow
man plead with the Audubon county
farmer to plant special five acre seed
patch this spring in order to insure them
selves good seed corn for the future. In
this connection Professor Bowman said:
+" 1t means millions of bushels increase
in the annual yield of Iowa cornfields if
every farmer had a seed patch of five
acres from which to secure his seed in
the fall planting the following spring
And what a simple operation this is. 1t
is not expensive, neither does it consume
| any large amount of time. 1t is so sim
pie that every farmer can carry it out
to the letter and when once tried he will
never be without one again.
| when you test seed corn this spring
you will note that all the ears do not
terminate alike. Neither are they equal
ly strong and vigorous in appearance.
just as you would select animals for
breeding purposes, select fifty or sixty
of the strongest, most vigorous and best
ears of seed corn. This will be the seed
You are going to use for your patch. In
the first place where will this patch be
located? OF course it could be put off by
itself, but this is not necessary. 1t may
be put on the south or southwest portion
of one of your fields. Possibly your neigh.
Dor will have some corn just across the
fence from your field, and in this case
the seed patch had better be placed on
the north side of your larger fields. No
special preparation need be given this
five acre patch other than that which
you give the rest, but of course in all
cases the seed bed should be thoroughly
prepared before planting.
In preparing the sixty ears for seed
patch you will, of course, shell off the
butts and tips, as in the case of all the
rest of the seed. The tip kernels are small
er, harder to plant and the butts kernels
often extremely large and non uniform
so for these reasons, if for none other,
it is well that the end of the ear be shell
ed off. 1t is not necessary to keep the
kernels from one ear separate from the
rest, shell sixty ears and plant the seed
in this five acre patch. 1t would be de-
sirable to plant this patch the very first
of your corn, and of course in fall plow-
ing, preferable to spring in case it is sod
land. Care for this patch the same as
the rest Cultivate it with the rest and
then select the best of it before it gets
caught by frost in the fall "
There sanother thing you should not
forget to do. After it tassels out take
your butcher knife and go up and down
the rows cutting out all the small and
non bearing stalks, because if this is not
done the tassel on these stalks may fer
tilize the ears on the strong and vigor-
Gus stalks and thus destroy the quality
for seed. In gathering the corn for seed
put the very best aside to plant the seed
patch the following year.
Prof. Holden, the noted expert in corn
growing, could not come to Audubon
but Prof. NJ. L. Bowman of Waterloo,
Prof. A. H. Snyder and Prof. J. ID.
Caldwell of Ames, ana Mr.. Lauderdale
and some other gentlemen came up on
| the special car Tuesday morning. The
lateness of the train shortened the time
and Prof. Bowman gave the only address
which was listened to with attentive in
| terest. He said he had not come to tell
the farmers new things but to urge upon
them the necessity of doing what they
| already knew concerning the selection
of good seed. AS it is ordinarily planted
one acre of corn contains 1856 hills. And
| if only one ear of medium size weighing
twelve and one-half ounces is grown
| from every hill the Yield will be 40 bush
els to the acre. And yet our average
yield in this county is only 33 bushels
which makes it less than one ear to a
hill. An ear contains from 800 to 1900
kernels, hence it takes but dozen ears
to plant an acre.
Professor Bowman showed the audi
ence how to make seed corn tester by
taking a box thirty inches square and
six inches deep using sawdust well
soaked in water as seed bed. Then he
showed them how to arrange and mum
Der the corn and do the planting He
also urged the necessity for grading the
seed corn as to size and showed how il
could be done. In order to do this quick.
ly they carried with them corn shelter
q grader and corn planter. The Agri'
cultural College, which furnishes the
men, and the Rock Island, which fur.
nishes the special cars for transporta-
ton, are doing great work for the
benefit of the farmer and all the people
of the state in spreading the gospel OF
good seed corn among the men who
| grow the corn.