American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1912-06-20

q III, sly les himself. IHOuSl ne
Is admitted to be one Of the lead
ing corn experts in the country
one whose services are greatly in
demand as a judge Of corn ex
hi Mr.. Palm asks for no great
er honor or distinction than to be
Known - a plain Hoosier farmer,
ard white he openly processes a
reasonable pride in the achieve.
men, of growing the famous ear OF
COIN which was adjudged the most
pt'fect ever grown. it is without
a shadow of o~stentation.
The champion ear of corn was
.: an accident. There can be no
greater lesson IN the value of
study and p~ainstaking selection OF
seed and breeding than the exper-
fences o. this same Palm. The far
ms who thinks he stands a chance
to go into his corn field and by a
piece of luck pick out an ear which
Nature has fashioned even more per
fectly and with it wrest the honors
from this Indiana man, cannot do
better to disabuse his mind of this
~fallacious notion than to read the
story of Palm and his champ o n ear.
Fred c. Palm.
In the first place, Palm knows
corn. If there were No more proof
o. tn fact than the bare story of
de ,tlopment and discovery of the
champion ear, it would be enough.
Ard in proof of this fact, here is
the story as he told it himself
1T was in November, 1910, and
We were just harvesting crop
we were a little late with the har-
vest. The men were going through
thu fields with the wagon in the
usual way gathering the corn, and
the harvest was a promising one.
I'VE have a sort of corn show
at my farm all the time, and there
is always an award for exceptionally
good ears of orn-ear sufficiently
til to type to permit of their be-
irt. exhibitered There is d small bo,
on every corn wagon in which the
most perfect ears are thrown. These
when properly selected constitute
the seed corn, and among these NOR
perfect ears we occasionally find an
ear that we are willing TO exhibit
in a contest.
"On the day the champion ear
Was found, l was at the house and
at dinner time one of the men
brought it in and laid it with a
nur. Der of other ears, upon the
window sill in the well room for
rne to take and put away in the
seed house.
Well l said. do you think
you've got a good ear there?
1t looks TO me like a good a
he aid. What do you think OF
it,"
Il picked it up and looked it
over. Well, 1 said finally. l think
il is he most perfect ear OF corn
l ever saw. It's good enought to win
me kellogg $500 trophy this
year at Omaha
and was confident the mo-
usnt saw it, and looked it over
tina. 1 held the trophy winner -
NY hand. So much So that when l
left for Omaha 10 exhibit the ear
I took it ou@ o. my sup and show
ed to the staten a7enJ with the
wuras. That's The ear I'm going
to win the St.oGe -ro}hy with
So there's the story of the cham
pion ear as Palm told it himself
And on the strength OF it who will
81. that Fred c. Palm doesn't
Justly merit the title, The man who.
k lows corn?
But that's not all OF Palms
story. He tells it willingly though
II destly, for he knows that his
story whenever told is a source OF
great encouragement of the thou
sands of farmers who never had a
better chance than he had himself.
Palm was born and brought up or
q farm near Newton, l d. He has
never owned a foot of farm land in
hi life, and the 321-acre farm on
which the champion ear of corn
was grown was a rented farm.
Nh. Palms real experience as a
farmer began about sixteen years
ago. He had been on the road as
a grocery specially salesman, when
he took a notion that he would
rather be an agriculturist. so he
took a few short courses at Purdue
University and rented q portion of
the farm he now occupies. Nine
years ago he began carefully breed
-