New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1916-03-01
SHORTAGE OF SEED CORN IN
NORTHERN STATES.


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 York, Mich
gan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas,
Montana, Idaho, and Washington-was
6,716,152 acres. Last year it was H.
21,O00- If the industry is to continue
to grow, say specialists in the depart
ment, 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 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
preserving seed only from individuals
which show promise, in several years the
habits and characteristics can be changed
considerably, and perhaps a variety
which at first failed to mature may be so
changed that it becomes suitable.
Even when variety has been thus
adapted to locality, so that it will ma
ture under ordinary conditions, there
will come seasons so unfavorable that it
will not mature. If only one years seed
supply is gathered each year, all the
work OF adaptation 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.
Go out into the cornfield 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 they
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 tempera-
ture and moisture, Any man can follow
the simple directions here given and
plant his fields every year with good,
vigorous growing seed which he knows is
adapted to his farm
The matter of 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 seed, and in doing this he
is in grave danger of obtaining either
poor seed or seed of late-maturing
varieties
Homegrown seed that has been we'll
cared for, though it was not thoroughly
mature, is almost certain to give better
results than imported seed. By home
grown 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, should not send for seed grown
in southern South Dakota or Iowa. If
this is done, the crop resulting will al
most certainly be immature next fall
"uSu IL ID 1lcCtSSdly W lldI VGSI.
An exception to this may be the dry
land portion of the more Southern States.
The corn growers there are confronted
nearly every year with drought. In
order to grow corn at all, it is necessary
to grow early-maturing varieties which
will "made' before the drought occurs.
Some excellent crops were secured in
1915; but in some instances good crops
were secured from varieties which are
early maturing and therefore not we'll
adapted for northern planting. Too
much care can not be exercised in learn
ing the facts before purchasing seed corn
there. This seed will be widely offered
for sale this year.
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 depart
ment may be able to assist farmers in
obtaining seed from these sources. In
this connection an appeal is made for
every grower of northern seed corn,
having good seed to sell, to furnish the
Office 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 obtained
by the Office of Corn Investigations with
seed which was very immature when
gathered. Even if your seed was in the
1'soft dough- stage when gathered last
fall, it if was promptly dried and well
cared for, it will terminate and reproduce
we'll enough to make it preferable to
southern seed.
Attention also is called to Farmers