The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1912-03-15
FARMERS WARNED
ABOUT THEIR SEEDa
FOR THIS SPRING
GREAT FARM IMPLEMENT CO.
ASKS PLANTERS TO BE
CAUTIOUS.
SOUND PLANTING IS IMPORTANT
Suggests That Every Ear Stand Test
Before Kernels Are Transmitted
to The Soil or Serious Results May
Follow This Season.

1
The following lette rof warning is
being sent out by the Deere & Com
pany, implement men, to be publish
ed throughout the country:
Unfortunately, farmers are expert
encing great difficulty in securing
good seed corn this spring on &C.
count of the continued rains last fall,
which retarded ripening and kept the
ears soaked with moisture until
freezing weather. The germ of seed
was in many localities killed or it's
vitality greatly weakened.
The planting season being short,
1t stands the farmer in hand to know
that his first planting will be success
fdl, otherwise, the delay, due to poor
seed, may result disastrously.
A grain of good corn means at
least an ear. An average ear of seed
corn contains $50 kernels, which
ought to produce as many ears. Five
ears should produce at least forty-five
bushels of corn. If any percent of
seed corn fails to terminate the loss
is material, but when the farmer is
confronted with the almost certainty
that fifty per cent or more of the
ears are dead, he faces a great loss.
While there are exceptions to the
rule, it will be found that if two or
more of the kernels in an ear are
dead, the whole ear is dead What
is the answer? There can be but
one, and that is, test every ear and
DO it early, and If one kernel from an
ear fails to terminate or the germina-
ton is weak, do not take a chance,
bat discard it. To test corn enough
to plant forty acres will require but
four or five hours work, matter of
lime hardly worth considering.
"A germinator is made from q box
rs inches or more wide, from to 6
inches high and about rs inches in
length for each bushel of corn to the
tested. This is filed with coist saw
dust to within two inches of the top
A piece of mus1n IS moistened and
with an indelible pencil marked of in
squares 2h inches each way, SO that
when the cloth is laid on the sawdust
in the box there will be ten rows of
squares and ten squares in each row.
"The ears of corn are laid in rows
on table, floor or board and mark
cd in tens. Beginning with ear No.
l al one end Of the row, take out 6
kernels from the different parts of
the ear. Place these in square No.
at the upper left hand corner OF the
oox Place the kernels from ear 10
in square 10 at the adjacent corner
from No. l. Place No. IL immediate
ly below No. /, etc. When six kerr
nels from each ear have thus been
placed in the box, cover with a piece
of wet muslin larger than the box,
and place moist but not saturated
sawdust over all the top of the box.
Before placing the corn in the ger
minator, sterilize the cloth and saw
dust by boiling or by the application
Of steam to destroy fungus spores.
leave germinator at room tempera-
! ture, from so to 70 degrees F., for
from six to eight days, until sprouts
are from one to two inches long. To
read the test, carefully roll back up
per muslin with sawdust in such a
manner as not to remove the kernels
| from theiI places. Examine roots
and stems. Whenever a kernel is
,, found having failed to terminate or
having no root or no stem, or a weak,
thin. spindling root or stem, discard
the ear from which 1t is taken. In
this way perfect termination corn
can be secured w. e. TAYLOR,
Director of Soil Culture.