Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1913-05-01
Better !! Farming
Notes i:
CORN BREEDING ON THE FARM

One OF the ways by which We ma.
increase the yield and quality OF the
corn grown in the county is by start
ing quite a number of breeding blocks
for corr all over the country, In or,
der to do this and to have something
quite good to start with it will be nee
essary to save out about fifteen of
the strongest terminating ears that
you have on the place and you have a
good starting point, Now these ears
may look almost exactly alike, they
may show up equally we'll in the test
er but when you come to try them
out in the field there will be a mark
ed difference in the yielding qualities
as well as other desirable characters
in the corn crop. If you have an iso-
lated field of about an acre in area
this would be a fine place for the
block unless it is too low or has some
other draw back. If you do not have
this isolated plot you might plant the
best ears on n size of your field.
The south or west sides would be pre-
ferable to the north or east because
of the direction Of the prevailing
winds during the summer months and
especially at the time that the corn
S silking and shedding its pollen. An
ear of corn containing 600 kernels
will plant about 200 hills if the drop
were perfect, but as a general thing
it is best to figure on about an ear
to plant a row about 40 rods long.
The width of the patch will depend
entirely on the number of rows you
desire to plant and on the width of
your planter.
The seed bed for the breeding block
should be well prepared. The time
for planting is about the 10th to the
goth of May, preference being given
the earlier date. When you are ready
to begin planting take your ears to
be used out to the field and shell off
the butt and tip kernels, they being
irregular in shape and will not drop
the right number of kernels to the
hill and for that and other reasons
you will not want to ute them.
Shell one of the ears into one of
the planter boxes and the next one
into the other box, take a couple of
ears with you to the other end of the
field as you will want to plant the
two next rows in the same way only
from different ears. When you come
to the end Of the field each box should
be emptied and the planter tripped
by hand in order to make sure that all
of the corn is out and that each row
will be planted from only one ear.
Continue until the block is finished.
This may be cared for as far as Gull
tiyation goes like the rest of the field.
Of course you viii want to give it
every possible chance, as all other
things being equal, here is where your
best seed corn will be found next fall.
And to make sure that this will be the
case, during the summer months you
will want to detassel every other row
there by producing crossbred seed
corn and in all cases where this has
been done the yield has always shown
up in favor of the crossbred corn.
During the fall when you come to
save out your seed corn you will want
to save it from the detasseled rows as
they will not be inbred. Some of the
things that you will want to watch
during the GUNNER are these. All the
ears may have grown in the same field
the year before and yet when you
come to husk the corn there is very
likely to be a big difference in the
yielding qualities of adjoining detas-
seled rows, n may ba a whole lot
better matured than the others, one
may have a larger number of weak
and barren stalks than the rest, some
rows might have the ears too high
on the stalk, one may be smutted q
whole lot more than the adjoining
rows. In fact you may look for Il
large number of things that will be Of
interest to you and to the boys be-
cause after some years we will be
growing our own seed and selling a
lot of it to others. | am not a proph-
ct nor a son of a prophet but show
me a spot or place where the boys
have been encouraged in the growing
of corn like they are right here in
Codington county and I'll show you a
lot of good corn in that particular
ne~ighborhood.
II o want some detailed instrue-
tons as to the handling of the corn
crop, tell us where you i've and vel
will want to meet you and be Of anyl
assistance to you that we can.
We would like to see one or two|
farmers try to produce some frst