The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1922-04-06
then ready for making the test.

Inc nrst step IN preparing the
dolls is to lay out on clean surface
of newspapers the strip of the insu-
lating paper. The best paper has
been found to be 70 pound Pearl
Water finish Fibre Paper. It is a
standard grade of paper and can be
purchased in IL inch rolls through
any bookstore or printer. A clean
strip must be used for each test. The
paper should be at least from eight to
10 inches longer than the cloths. The
cloth is then placed on the fibre pa
per preparatory to placing the ker-
! nels.> Care must be taken not to
roll the dolls too tightly or too
loosely.
after the dolls are made they are
placed in double walled box. The
j germinator box consists of an outer
and inner box with sawdust and lime
stone between them, and cross rods
to separate the dolls during the test.
"The inner box is IL by "a inches
and Is inches deep, inside dimen-
sions. The outer box can be of any
size but sould low at least 3
inch space for the sawdust between
/ it and the inner box.
"The walls of the inner box should
be perforated to permit damp air
from the sawdust to gain access to
the inside of it. The cross rods
should be fitted inside the smaller
box lat inch intervals and about 3
inches from the top.
"a box of this size provides room
for 80 dolls which gives it a capacity
for testing $40 seed ears. A 8 inch
layer of sawdust or shavings mixed
with approximately one-fourth of its
weight of agricultural limestone or
air slaked lime should be placed in the
bottom of the inner box under the
dolls during the test. Do not use
caustic lime for this purpose.
s'The bottom. of the outer box
should be placed on strips of wood to
facilitate rapid drainage. At no time
should the sawdust be permitted to
become sour. Adequate limestone
will prevent any sourness from devel-
oping.
"The dolls are placed in the box in
vertical position. They are sprink-
led twice daily with luke warm water.
1t is not necessary to immerse the
dolls in water at any time during the
test. The bags covering the box al
so are kept moist as well as the saw
dust around the inner box.
ga temperature of approximately
80 degrees Fahrenheit should be'main-
tanned in the inner box during the
test. The box should, therefore, be
kept in warm place. Satisfactory
results have been obtained by thor
oughly saturating the sawdust around
the inner box with boiling water
twice daily. If this is done, extra
precautions are necessary to prevent
wetting any of the dolls with the hot
water because this would kill the
young seedlings and prevent the
proper Interpretation of the results"
The kernels should be left in the
termination test for 10 days or until
the sprouts have chance to grow
four or five inches long. This is
important just now because should a
kernel be diseased the disease may
not manifest itself if the kernel is
left in tn termination box only a
week.
On opening the rag dolls examine
the sprouts and roots of the germin-
ated kernels carefully. If any of the
kernels show mold or any Of the
sprouts or roots are discolored in
any way, the safest plan is to discard
the ears. 1t does not pay to take
chances. 1t is better to throw out a
healthy ear than to plant a diseased
one.
If every corn grower will rotate his
crops, test his seed corn and throw
out every suspicious ear, corn rot
and these other corn diseases will
soon be checked and thousands of
lol1