Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1913-11-06

Selection for seed insures good
corn; for show, prizes. Selection of
corn for seed is as necessary as Sc
lection Of live stock for breeding and
for the same reasons. Care pays. The
farmer who selects can sell. The
time Of the corr breeder is here.
Cylindrical Most Desirable Shape.
The best shape for an ear of corn
is cylindrical. That is, it should car
ry about the same thickness from
butt to tip. A tapering ear will have
less weight Of corn on it than a cyl
indrical one. Moreover, the taper is
partly due to shallow kernels toward
the tip and the fact that the kernels
will, therefore, not all be Of the same
size and shape makes it impossible
for a planter to drop them evenly.
The proper length of an ear of corn
will depend upon its diameter. In
general the length should be to the
circumference as 4 is to 3, or a 10
inch ear should be tx inches around,
measured at one-third the distance
from butt to tip. Ears medium in
length should generally be selected.
Ears slightly above medium size are
best.
The butt of an ear Of corn should
be well rounded out with deep, reg
ular kernels, compactly and evenly
arranged about a cup-shaped cavity,
the diameter of which should be
about an inch. The diameter of the
scar where the ear was attached to
the stalk should be about three
fourths of an inch in medium varie-
ties. II the butt is large and wide
the ear will be hard to break off in
husking; if it is too narrow the ear
may blow off. Clean, compart butts
mean careful selection; and coarse,
wide butts, poor selection.
The tip of an ear should be well
filed out to the end, and completely
covered with kernels. Too much at
tention should not be given to COW
cred tips, however, as there are very
few ears that have them and they are
usually the shorter ears.
An ear of corn should be solid and
compact, with little space between
the rows Of kernels. Wide burrows
mean rounded instead of deep ker'
nels, and this is not the type OF the
highest yielding corn for Missouri.
Cob Is to Corn as Bone to Animal.
The size of the cob should neither
be very large nor very small. Cob
bears the same relation to an a OF
corn as does bone to an animal. 1t
may be either too fine or too coarse,
A large, coarse cob indicates poor
quality and poor selection. An ear
having such usually dries out slowly
and hence the vitality of the corn is
often injured by freezing during the
winter. An understood cob either
bears grains that stand out like the
fans on the wheel of a windmill and
hence are easily shattered, or it has
pointed grains with narrow, contract
ed germs, the vitality of which is
usually low.
In general the deeper the kernels
and smaller the cob, the better the
ear, but it is possible to have kernels
so long as cobs SO slim as to be
faulty. This fault is rarely found
however, the most common fault be
ing in getting cobs too large. A
medium-sized cob with kernels that
are wedge-shaped, but not pointed
and that fit compactly from top tt
bottom, is to be preferred.
The length of the kernels should
be about one and one-half times its
width at its widest part and it should
be of uniform thickness from n enc
to the other. The germ should BIZ
large, smooth and bright-not discol
ored, blistered, wrinkled or rough
ened. When broken open it SHOULD
show a fresh, oily appearance.
Seed corn should be selected in the
fall, preferably from the field after i
is well matured, and before an.
heavy frosts have occurred. One O
the best methods is to go through thu
field with a basket or sack and selec
the best ears from the best stalks.
An ear of corn may be a good on