Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1918-01-25
LOOK CLOSE TO
YOUR SEED CORN
Western Farmer Ends That Per-
centage of termination is
Very Small-Free Tests To
Be Made by MIR. Wall.

from the Breeders Gazette, and was
in the last issue. This is reliable
authority and should receive the care
full attention of Tazewell farmers:
II do not believe that farmers in
the corn belt appreciate the seed corn
situation. The papers have printed
some information about it, but find
my own neighbors still thinking that
they can pick pretty good seed from
their cribs this spring in the man.
ner they have been accustomed to,
and have not found any one who
seems to me to be fully ware Of the
actual conditions. My brother had
good sized field Of corn, absolutely
ripe when frost came, and it seemed
reasonably dry all fall. About two
weeks ago when it seemed that there
was going to be serious shortage of
seed corn, he suggested that while
this corn was not pedigreed, still it
was sound and nice and in his opin-
ion would all grow and that he would
better use it for seed We decided
to germinate some of it to be sure.
He brougt in about bushel of seed
taken from three fields. We ook sew
eral grains from each ear and made
d composite test of each field. One
lot germinated about 35 per cent;
one about 46 per cent; and one 81
per cent. In view of these facts we
decided it was not good for seed. We
made second test of individual ears
and found no ear showing perfect
termination. Some showed no ger
mination and some up to as high as
GO to rs per cent.
Zone of our ncighbors suggested
to a number of our best farmers that
we would test the corn they had Sc
lected for seed, making limited
number of tests free of charge, in
order to get line on the situation.
Later, he told me that between ten
and fifteen per cent. germinated. Re-
member that this was all selected
seed that the best farmers in this
vicinity had put aside for next years
planting, and it was corn which they
thought would grow
eff the farmers go ahead and plant
seed which they have been accustom-
ed to planting without first germi-
mating it, 1 look for plenty of corn to
show 25 per cent. stand. even in our
own neighborhood, where we were
blessed with better conditions than
prevailed in most of the corn belt.
Most of our corn maturcd before the
frost and apparently would have been
safe to plant, but the trouble was
that an extremely hard freeze, or
rather n number of freezes about
Thanksgiving time, caught the corn
when it was still saturated with wa
ter. Every farm paper should call at
tention to these facts. Every village
should begin community testing of
the corn which the farmers expect
to plant next spring 1t will be ca
lamity that the Kaiser will highly
approve of if we plant seed which
cannot possibly germinate more than
20 or 25 per cent.-C. B. W., Cham
paign, Ohio.
Due to the alarming seriousness of
the situation l have just received in
structions from the Director of Ex-
tenson Work in Virginia, to offer my
services to the farmers of this coun-
ty to run termination tests on corn
intended for seed purposes. l wish
to say that l consider this very
practical move and urge that every
single farmer know the termination
of all corn he plants this year. l
am prepared to do this work for any
one desiring it, or l shall be glad to
give any directions to any one who
will do it themselves. / wish to eau
tion, however. that every detail in
directions must be carried out if re-
liable results are to be expected. 1t
is important that this matter be at
tended to at once. While our situa-
tion may not be so serious as that
above l consider it very questiona-
BILE. think that very likely our
seed, most of which is sappy, was
damaged by the low temperature of
20 to 80 degrees below zero just af-
ter Christmas. We must try to Sc
cure our seed in this section so that
it will be acclimated. Send at least
100 grains of corn from not less than
20 ears well scattered about through
the room where seed is stored. In
any case sample must be a fair rep
resentative. Also state where SAM
pies were taken from-shock, crib or
well ventilated seed house, etc. If you
consider your corn good for seed and
have some to sell, like the sample
sent please state the number of the
bushels. Mr.. M. L. Peery, Secretary
and Treasurer of the TazeWell Farm