New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1918-03-27
!. NEW SEED CORN TEST

! NEW SEED CORN TEST
No one this spring will attempt to
use corn gathered last fall for seed
without testing it first to find if it will
grow. Nothing is needed to encour-
age this. to be done. The big prob
lem is how to do it. -
We have used the sawdust and dirt
boxes and the rag doll and also the
commercial testers which are more
or less successful but another method
has been announced this spring that
is looked forward to as great ad-
vancement in the method of testing
corn for seed. This has been develop
ed by Mr.. j.. w. Lawton, county agent
| in Wabasha County and is given to the
farmers of the Northwest without
patent right after spending some two
years in ,perfecting it. This method is
encouraged especially by the Minnesota
college-of Agriculture. ::
Here is given description of it as
published in THE. FARMER of the
March 9th issue. The Lawton tester
is the ss..rag-doll'' tester perfected. A
strip of cloth such as unbleached mus
lin or, sheeting, II inches wide and %
feet long is used to make: a test for
600 ears. II inch strips can be cut
and sewed end to end to make length
of % it. 800
When the corn is placed on the sew
en- inches in the center of this cloth it
is rolled around a core made Of heavy
wire screen. This core is two inches
in diameter, and nine inches long. AL
lowing an inch of cloth to extend over
each end Of the wire core and serves
as a wick. A strip of netting seven
inches wide when rolled and the ends
soldered will give diameter of little
over two inches. Having been cut to
the nine inch length. - ~ = u: s7''
"A convenient sampler for taking
4 kernels from the ear is made by driv-
ing nails about inches apart in a
small piece <of I soft wood and leaving
the points of the nails: stick thru the
piece of:Wood about the depth of kerr
mel Of corn. These are placed between
the rows and by a twist will take out
several kernels. Four are used in the
test from each ear. Two from each
END. .:~,
T A simple continuance for placing
the kernels on the cloth is arranged
VERY conveniently by the aid of a piece
of wood called "placer" which THE
FARMER'' describes as follows: It
consists Of another strip of soft wood,
Ia by 1-2 inches, nine inches long.
On one flat side of this strip, seven
1 inches are marked off from the left end
with a pencil. In this seven-inch space
three slots are cut entirely through the
the strip, each a little less than two
inches long and a little more than a
quarter of an inch apart. The back
side of these slots is chiseled straight
down, but the front or near side is bev-
e,ed inward and downward so that the
bottom aperture of the slot is narrow
er than the upper aperture and can be
plainly seen from the front.
| The idea is to throw the samples
from each of three ears of corn into
these slots as the placer lies on the
fiat. strip OF cloth. The placer then
can be moved into position readily,
with the kernels in a row at the bottom
When the placer: is lifted the three
samples Of corn are in place crosswise
Of the cloth, with quarter of an inch
between each. sample. The placer is
then reflled and moved 5up next to the
previous row, saving the time land
painstakng labor OF placing the kerr
nels by hand. ~ ~
Nothing could be more convenient.
The seven-inch rows of corn across the
cloth leave one inch of Wiree screen
(Which is nine inches long) and two,
inches of cloth (Which is II inches
wide) free at either end OF the rows Of
corn. When the roll is finished, a
string is tied around each end Of the
screen to keep the corn from falling
out, and the one-inch free space at
each end permits this tying. The reas-.
on for the extra width Of cloth hang
ing over the ends Of the screen viii be
explained later. But it should be not
ed here that the length Of. the placer
| is nine inches, with two inches free at
the right-hand end. BY drawing the
placer down With this end even with