The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-02-15
SEED CORN FOR
The NORTH

! Washington, Feb. 15-The frequent
| shortages of seed corn in the north
| ern states are becoming more serious
as the Importance of the crop in this
area increases. In 1903 the acreage
| of corn in the northern tier of states
New England, New ork, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas,
Montana, Idaho, and Washington
was 6, 716,152 acres. Last year it
was 1112IOOOA If. the industry is
to continue to grow, say specialists
in the U. S. Department of Agricul-
ture, more attention must be paid to
the seed supply and the attempt to
grow varieties which require long
season in which to mature must be
abandoned.
Varieties must be found or bred
which will make a rapid growth and
mature in the short period between
the last killing spring frost and the
first killing fall frost. When man
aids nature by selecting and preserv-
ing seed only from individuals which
show promise. in several years the
habits and characteristics can be
changed considerably, and perhaps
variety which at first failed to ma
ture may be so changed that II pc
comes suitable.
Even when a variety has been thus
adapted to a locality, so that it will
mature under ordinary conditions,
! there will come seasons unfaVoraDIe
that it will not mature. If only one
years seed supply is gathered each
year, all the work of adoption is lost.
The proper way is to gather enough
from a good crop to supply seed for
two or three years thereafter Good
seed will keep without depreciation
this long.
90 ont into the cornfieId before
the first killing frost, gather a good
supply of the best ears to be found
on stalks growing in competition with
others; hang these ears up in, some
place where the will be protected,
but at the same time have good
chance to dry out quickly; when dry
enough to shell, do so, and put the
seed away where it will not be ex-
posed to too great changes in tenn
perature and moisture. Any man can
follow the simple directions here CIV
en- and plant his fields every year with
good vigorous growing seed which he
knows is adapted to his farm
The matter of a seed supply is
case of avoiding trouble, rather than
trying to remedy the trouble after it
has arrived If no seed of the 1914
crop is available, the farmer is in
bad shape. He must purchase his
eed, and in doing this he is in grave
danger of obtaining either poor seed,
Homegrown seed that has Deen
well cared for, even though it was
not thoroughly mature, is almost GER
tain to give better results than I'M
ported seed. By homegrown seed is
meant seed grown on the farm, or in
the same county, or where the same
general conditions affected the crop
The point to be emphasized is that
the farmer in Minnesota. or North
Dakota, sh ou1d not send for seed
lxofa ATsI
Iowa. If this is done,~the crop re-
sulting will almost certainly be inn
mature next fall when it is necessary
to harvest
~ An exception to this may be the
drv-Iand portion of the more south |
are confronted nearly every year with
drought. |
There are certain localities, even in
the most northern states, where corn
did mature sufficiently to provide
seed for 1916. 1t is possible that the
Department of Agriculture may be
able to assist farmers in obtaining
seed from these sources. In this con-
nection an appeal is made Tor every
grower of northern seed corn, having
good seed to sell, to furnish the Of
flee of Corn Investigations Of the De-
partment with his name, address,
name of variety, price, and amount
of seed for sale. A generous response
will aid the department in relieving
the present critical situation.
Surprising results have been OBJ
tanned by the office of Corn 4nves-
LEGATIONS with seed which was very
immature when gathered Even II
your seed was in the soft dough-
stage when gathered last fall, if it
was promptly dried and well cared
for, it will terminate and reproduce
well enough to make it preferable TO
southern seed.
Attention also is called to Farmers
Bulletin No. AIS, entitled "Seed Corn"
which treats the subject in more de-