The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-02-10
CORN IMPROVEMENT
CHRISTIE'S TALK

In the corn room on Friday, Prof
Christie gave talk on Corn I'M
provement." He said that the corn
this year in Indiana is in very bad
shape, and in many corn shows the
question of vitality had to be left out
altogether if prizes were to be award
ed. Corn in the neighboring states is
in as bad condition and it is not safe
for farmers to send to these states
for their seed corn. He advised ev-
cry farmer to select one hundred ears
of their best corn and lay them out on
table, take out the best ones and
compare it with the rest and in this
way select twenty-five good ears.
Shell off the tips and butts and use
only the remaining kernels for plant
ing. These twenty-five ears should
be planted in a separate bed in the
south or west side of the field to pre-
vent the wind blowing the pollen
from other corn on this seed corn.
Every farmer cannot have a breed
ing plot, he said, but every one should
have a seed corn patch. He advised
the farmers to go through this plot as
often as possible and pull out the
young stocks that "knuckle over" bar
rem and smutty. Should the stocks be
quite grown when these are noticed,
he advised pulling out the tassel.
Like produces like, he explained, and
the offspring of a corn stock that has
been pollinated with pollen from
smutty or barren stock have tenden-
sy to reproduce barren stocks. In the
fall, go through this plot and pick out
the best ears for next years seed. He
can be sure 1t is from good stock be-
cause he has seen it grow and knows
1t Is free from barrenness.
Every ear should be tested and the
best way to test an ear of corn is not
by biting the germ, but by placing
five kernels from each ear in germi-
nator and only ears that showed the
five kernels terminated should be
used for planting. Mr.. Christie says
IL takes fourteen ears of corn to plant
an acre of corn and by careful tending
and management we should get seven
ty bushels per acre, Then each ear
reproduces five bushels of corn and
this corn sold at fifty cents per BUSH
ell makes good seed ear worth $3.50
At this rate it is worth the farmers
while to terminate their corn for
should poor ear be planted farmers
not only lose the $3.50 but also the
time and labor as weel as the use of
the land.
Many elevator men over the state
are putting in germinators and hiring
men to terminate the corn for the
farmers in the vicinity. This work
is done free of cost to the farmers,
the elevator men paying all expenses
This method is proving very salts
factory in that the farmer plants good
corn. gets higher yields. and the eleva-
tor man has more and better corn to
sell and both are benefited Seed
corn should be properly stored be-
cause the germ is filled with water
and when this water freezes it has a
tendency to break down the cells in
the little germ and in that case the
germ is dead and will not sprout Mr..
Christie is advocating that all farmers
who sell seed corn, instead of selling
it by the ear or bushel from the seed
house as is now done, terminate each
ear before selling same and sell only
those that terminate one hundred
per cent. This will keep only the
good ears on the market and will have
a tendency 10 help the average farmer
who does not terminate his corn, to
grow good corn.