The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1912-10-04
FARM SEEDS SHOULD
Be SELECTED WITH
PARTICULAR CARE
CULTIVATE IT SEPARATE FROM
THE OTHER CROPS WITH
ATTENTION.
The PLAN OF seed CORN PLOT
Necessary to Keep This Method Up
For a Number of Years in Order
to Reach the Best Possible Results.
Says an Expert.
(By A. L. Garrison, Chief Feed and
-. -. Seed Inspector

(By A. L. Garrison, Chief Feed and
49,. -. Seed Inspector.)
During the tour of the agricultural
special train over the state, made
the statement to thousands of farm
ers that there was no time devoted
to the crop that paid better thar
seed selection, and that there is just
as much development in. field seed
as tire is in live stock. | am well
aware of the fact that great many
did not credit this statement with its
true significance, so / am going tt
follow up my line of argument with
corroborative evidence. l will first
most respectfully call your attention
to bulletin No. 81 of the Virginia de
partment of agriculture, which has
an article Improve Your Seed Com.
The farmer should give as much
care and attention to the improve
ment of his seed corn as he does
to the improvement of his live stock
1t will pay him just as much. Nc
farmer wants to breed from live
stock that has large mixture OF
scrub blood. Neither should he plant
seed corn that has large mixture
of pollen from nubbins and barren
stalks, for this kind Of corn will pro
duce nubbins and barren stalks just
as certainly as scrub blood will show
from breeding stock with scrub blood
in them.
Then why not plant a seed corn
plot off to itself and breed up your
seed corn year after year? In few
years, you will increase the yield of
your corn crop ten bushels of more
per acre without any extra cost.
The simplest kind of a seed corn
plot is one handled in the following
manner: In the first place select the
best ears that you can find with
which to plant it; select ears of the
type that will yield the most in the
average season; ears Of medium
length with deep kernel, with
straight even rows, and which are
we'll filled at butt and tip. Then test
these ears to see if they will germi-
nate WELL Then plant a plot from
these ears just as though you were
planting an ordinary field and
throughout the year give 1t good, or
binary cultivation. If there is possi-
bility that you may not give a plot
like this good care, it had better be
located on one side of the big field
than by itself. The time to give es-
pecial attention to this sort of plot
is in the fall, at the seed corn picking
time. By all means this crop must
be harvested and the corn dried and
stored in the best manner possible.
This sort of a seed corn plot is not
truly breeding plot. 1t is just sim
ply plot of ground planted from the
best ears, given good cultivation and
to which special attention is given
at harvest time. The advantage of
this sort of seed plot to most farm
ers simply is that when they have a
particular plot that they call their
seed corn plot, they are more likely
to give special attention at harvest
time to picking their seed at the right
time and properly caring for it than
when all the corn is in big field to-
gether. The benefit Is more from
proper harvesting thanfrom any true
breeding. In this sort of plot the
character of the stalks may also be
taken into consideration in picking
seed.
The seed corn for planting the en-
tire crop of the next year may be Sc
selected from any of the rows in the
plot; but preferably of course, from
the high yielding ones. This method
means that care must be taken in
planting, tasseling and at the harvest
time.
Breeding Of this sort must be kept
up for several years before the re-
suits are felt to any great exetent in
the field; but improvement is Sound
to come, and may result in the in
crease in yield of all corn on the
farm of as much as ten to fifteen
bushels to the acre. Such increases
which are due to breeding alone are
net profit.