Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-08-12

ready TO take four kernels from differ
ent parts of each ear, a j being taken
not TO take kernels from the butt or
the tip. If n has a discarded table
oil cloth it may be cut into pieces as
large as the flannel. This is attached
on n end and placed over
the corn. This prevents the
sprouts from growing through the
cloth and keeps the kernels in place.
This tester is called the rag doll. 1t
is now rolled up, tied, moistened and
placed in a covered tin vessel. AIT
must be allowed to circulate freely
during the termination. Every seed
should terminate, thus showing a via
bility of 100 per cen II any OF the
kernels Of an ear fail to terminate.
that AL should be discarded. The test
should be completed at the end OF
five days. The temperature should be
kept at about 80 to go degrees Fahren-
heit.
Testing Wheat. Oats, and Barley.
The rag doll has always given me
better results than any other method
I have tried. ! count out 100 seeds
at random and place them on the rag
doll. A small piece of paper with the
name and date can be placed on each
sample. It is we'll TO test samples in
duplicate, and be certain that the sam
noo ic \ rnproe ortati,-o of an him The
rag doll is rolled I'D and treated in the
am way as in the test for corn. At
the end cs FIVE DAYS. the termination
should he complete for the wheat and
oats, about six DAYS is required, how
ever, for barley. The viability should
be from 80 to 100 per cent.
Testing Alfalfa and clover.
Take a piece of hlotting paper and |
cut it into tour inch squares. Moisten
them. but do not allow the seed to lie |
in water. Count out 100 seeds at ran
dom and place on the blctters, place |
blotters between two tin plates, the
upper one upside down. At the end
of Ave days the test is complete, and |
so per cent is considered a good ger.
mination.
Weed Seed.
The most common weed seeds found |
in alfalfa, clover, and cereals are: Rus
sian thistle. green and yellow foxtail,
lambs quarters, pigweed. ragweed.
%barnyard grass, tickle grass, bull this
tie, marsh elder and field mustard.
These are generally classified as harm.
less weed seed. All weed seeds are
harmful if they are allowed to grow
in great numbers in any field, since
they are robbing the plants of plant
food and moisture.
The noxious weeds either act as par. /
asites or have perennial creeping root.
stocks which infect the cultivated field
SO that farming becomes very u%nproft.
able. Quack grass, field dodder, clover
dodder, wild oats and Canada thistle |
are known as very noxious weeds, and
any farm seed containing any of these
weed seeds should not be sown. Bronze
grass seed very frequently contains
quack grass, although no quack grass
is known to have been found west of
the Missouri river at present. How.
ever. if seed containing this noxious
weed is sown it may be but a short
time until it spreads over the entire
state.
Buy from Samples.
If you are buying seed from a small
seed house or from a reliable CONNER.
cial firm it is we'll to send for a sample.
Test the sample for termination, and
If you find any weed seed in 1t send
it to the state college at Brookings
for Identification. 1t takes but a short
time to make such a purity test, but a
termination test requires from Ave to
twenty-eight days. Time is saved in
this way and a purchase can be made
before the stock is exhausted.