The times-herald. [volume] (Burns, Harney County, Or.) 1896-1929, 1914-05-09
SEED eoAA FOR PLANTING.
bspartmsnt et Agriculture Tells How
TO Prepare the Corn.


10 Prepare the Corn.
Requests are now reaching the de-
partment OF agriculture for inrorma-
don In regard to preparing seed corn
for planting. The most vital part OF
seed corn selection work can he per
formed only at corn ripenlng tllne IN
the fall.
Every corn grower should now spend
a day or more getting his seed corn
entirely ready for planting. The pres
ent work consists OF dlscardlng .unde-
sirable ears. germinatlon testing, nub-
hing, classifying the ears, shelling ana
testing the accuracy OF drop OF the
corn planter
The quality aud productiveness OF
the seed supply can now he improved
by discarding the poorer ears aud the
poorer kernels.
The seed corn should now he "aS dry
as a bone" and among the ears that
appeared desirable Inst fall some un-
desirable ones will now be found.
Discard any that have discolorcd ker|
nels, small size. very sharp leaks,
germs OF poor development and appear
ance. etc.
All the ears retained should show
good development and maturity, be
heavy for their size and contain solid,
vigorous looking kernels of fairly uni
form size and shape. These dcsira'
BILE ears should now be tested to de-
termine whether all the kernels viii
grow.
termination Testing.
Although good seed selection ana
preservation usually make separate
testing OF the termination OF each ear
unnecessary, Il Is advisable TO exercise
precaution by demonstrating that the
ears will terminate well. Ten kernels
from each OF fifty ears can be tested
BY one Of the various methods that
have been 80 well described In litera-
ture. This demonstration that hfty
representative ears germinate satisfac-
toriiy Is sufficient evidence of the use
,essness Of testing each ear OF the en-
tire supply. II ears OF poor gernina-
tion should be found IL will be advis-
able to test each ear Of the entire sup
ply in order to be able to discard those
In poor termination.
Discard the small. partially developed
kernels from the tip OF the ears. WhyF
Because such kernels do not yield well,
Careful Geld experiments have demon
strated that they grow into small. bar
rem and poor producing stalks.
Discard the round. thick kernels from
the butts Of the ears. Why2 Because
the corn planter cannot drop evenly II
they are included with the other ker'
nels.
Kernels that have been injured 10y
mice or weevils or that are otherwise
undesirable should also be discarded
before the ears are shelled.
Classifying the Ears.
As It IL highly advisable that the
corn planter should drop an equal num-
Der of kernels in each hill. which II
cannot do unless the kernels are OF uni
form size and shape, II Is advisable TO
classify the ears before shelling them
Those having large kernels should be
included in one class and those having
meQlum size kefutis III uhothcA e'"'S'
Each class should be shelled and bag
ged separately. To these bags the
planter plates that testing has shown
win drop regularly the proper number
of kernels should be tied for conven-
ience at planting time.
shelled seed corn can be cleaned and,
graded by expensive. properly adjust
ed grades. but the method just de-
scribed of classifying the ears before
shelling L. more satisfactory.
How to Shell Seed Corn.
Seed corn should be shelled by hand.
Careful hand Smelling pays the man
who plants but q few acres. and II
pays to a greater degree the man who
plants hundreds OF acres. Each ear
should be sheIled separately into a
hand sieve. This permits the chan
from the cob TO fall through and the
kernels from each ear TO be closely In
spected before being dumped into the
general supply. The value Of this close
inspection is Lost II the ears are run
through q corn sheller and .ome OF the
kernels cracked or broken.