The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1916-03-16
TESTING SEED CORN
(By Maud Gingery)

The first thing to be done in testing
seed is to obtain box. The size of
the box depends upon the amount of
corn to be tested, however, the box
should be five or six inches deep. Fill
this box two-thirds full of saw-dust
well packed down.
Have STIR poi muslin ready it be-
ing of the same dimensions as the box.
Spread this out smoothly over the
saw-dust and tack it down SO as to
hold it in place. The next thing is to
mark this strip off into two-inch
squares and number each square. The
number of each square should be writ
ten clearly so there will be no mis-
taking them. You will be able to test
the same number of ears of corn as
there are numbers of squares, as each
square contains the kernels of only
one ear of corn. For instance, II you
have SO ears of corn, you must have
SO squares marked off on the cloth in
order to test all the corn.
From each ear you take six kerr
nels of corn. You should not take
them all from one place on the cob
but from various places. For example,
YOU start one inch, or so, from the tip
and take out one kernel; move on
down an inch or two and take out an
other, an so one until you have six
kernels, from different parts of the
ear of corn. After you have six kerr
nels from the ear you should have
gone completely around the cob OF
corn and down to about one inch from
the butt of the ear.
Take the six kernels from ear num-
Der one and place them in the square
marked one. Do this with all your
ears of corn, placing the kernels from
each ear in the square corresponding
with the number of the ear. When
this is done you will have each square
containing six kernels of corn.
However, you must know that there
is a difference in the way of placing
these kernels in the square. Each
kernel must be laid on the square with
the germ side up; in other words, the
flat side of the kernel should be
down. This is important in corn test
ing and therefore should be closely
adhered to. Each of the kernels must
point in the same direction. This IS
done simply to make it easier to read
the test.
Next YOU sprinkle the cloth on
which the corn lies with water until
the saw-dust underneath is well dam
pened. A dry cloth of the same size
is placed over the corn that is being
tested and then another piece OF cloth
is spread over this. On the last layer
of cloth spread about u inch to u
inch more saw-dust. You put the
third layer of cloth on so as to help
prevent the dislodging of kernels OF
corn when you remove the saw-dust
just before reading the test.
You then place the box in warm
room, leaving it there for six or ten
days. During this time the corn should
terminate. At the end of this time
you remove the top layer of saw-dust
and the two thicknesses of muslin.
The kernels will be sprouted if they
are good. 1t is by the sprouts you tell
if you have good seed corn. Perhaps
some of the kernels will not have
sprouted at all.
The best kernels will terminate six
strong, and the next best will be five
strong and one weak; then four strong
and two weak, etc., until we have SIX
: weak kernels. Then we have five
strong and one dead. However, test
of six weak kernels, it has been prov
ed, is better than test of five strong
and one dead.
In Iowa an experiment was carried
on, that showed that when ears test
ing five strong and one weak were