Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1919-02-21
Now Is The Time To TEST
Your Seed CO..,

During the long winter evenings,
the average farmer can not spend a
few hours Of his time more Otitably
from the standpoint of dollars and
cents than to utilize It making the
termination test of his seed corn
Almost every fall, hard freezing
weather in some sections of the United
States catches the corn crop in an
immature condition and in ures or
DESTROYS the ears for use as seed.
The Ii hit chaff ears can be separated
from those that appear mature by
inspec ion. However, some of the
ears that appear mature and sound
have sbeen killed or badly Injured
To separate these from those that
give good termination, it is neces
sary TO test the termination of few
kernels from each ear. A great many
farmers have the idea thai they can
te Il by simply looking at an ear OF
corn whether it will grow or not
To pro fe the fallacy of such au idea
will give an example. | have in my
Office four ears of corp, three of these
ears terminated 80 per cen: and not
one grim of the fourth terminated.
During the year possibly one hundred
farmer, have looked at these ears 0
corn ID not more than five or six of
them succet ded in picking out the
bad ca. 1t seems to me that is s1f-
ticient proof of The necessity Of max
ing the termination test.
Now. Mr.. Farmer, don't let a little
time and little trouble keep You
from testing your seed corn this year.
You vii get greater returns for your
time Consumed in doing this work
than anything else you will do en-
your fam this year Do you realize
that it 4uires only about sixteen
average size ears OF corn to plant an
acre and that If four of those ears
fail to terminate that you will have
only three fourlhs of stand of corr
on that acre. 1t does not matter how
much time, labor and money you
spend in preparing d field for corr
If you only get three fourths OF
stand You can not possibly y poet t.
harves none Than til ee fJuIths of
crop.
In what other way does the germi-
nation test pay besides getting 4
better stand? You ask, TIE Ohio En-
perime It Station has worked out the
answear to this question for you.
For five consecutive years, from 1911
to 1915 inclusive, the Ohio Station
elected seed corn for two experiment
plots, jlst as the average does, from
the corr crib in the spring just be-
fore pr ,ntiug time. This seed was
planted on plots No. l ard ,. The
only di ference was that the germina
ton test was made Of the seed planted
on plot No. l aud the poor ears dis
carded, on pot No. the corn was
planted jlst as it came from the
crib. Alter running this experiment
for five years the results were check
ed up and it was found that the
average increased yield per acrce In
favor Of the tested seed was All
bushels and in 1912 the increased
yield in favor of the tested seeds was
9.29 bushels per acre. Multiply your
corn &C cage this year by 1 II bushels
and tn product by she price per
bushels Of corn and see what a few
hours OF your time spent in making
the ger.nination test of your seeG
corn will be worth ta you this year
Don't shell your corn before max
ing the test, it is impossible to get an
accurat test unless each ear is tested
separately. The two methods of
making the termination test will
follow in next weeks issue of the
local p ,pers.
B A. WARRINER,
County Agent.