Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1923-03-24
WEEK OF APRIL TOT WILL BE x
DEVOTED TO SEEDS
Good, Strong, Pure Seeds Necessary
to Produce Good Crops for
County Farmers.
BY County Agent Shaffer

By County Agent Shaffer
We feel that the farmers of Iron
county have been planting seed in
the past that were not up to
standard as to purity and germina-
ton test. Therefore we have de-
signated the first week in April as
Seed Testing Week. Seed testing
week VIII be observed in the schools
of IRON county. If you haven't the
time to do the testing yourself, have
the school children do it Tor you. We
want every farmer in Iron county
to plant good, pure, vigorous seed
in 1923. Seed testing will take
only a small amount of your time
and this time will be well spent.
If we are to grow good crop of
corn, hay or grain we must plant
good, strong, pure seeds. We must
not only plant good seeds but we
must plant seeds of the right
variety. Take corn for an example,
if we go on planting seed adopted to
some ether section of the state, and
if said corn only terminates 80-90q6
as it viii probably do under Iron
county conditions we can expect
only an 80%e crop or about $500 bu.
per acre. If we plant northern
grown Wisconsin No rs yellow dent
corn we can expect a crop under
normal conditions of something like
so bu. better to the acre. This
means a difference of about 10 bu.
per acre, and a ton or two if we are
growing corn for silage. Weak and
sickly plants always go with low
termination. Test your corn and
if it doesn't terminate at least $50,
feed it and see your county agent re-
garding northern grown Wisconsin
No. Is corn.
Same Holds True With Oats.
The same thing will hold true
with your oat crop, your barley and
other grains, and with your grass
seed. If you enjoy cutting lodged
oats and oats not adapted to Iron
county conditions keep on buying
any old kind of oats to sow this
spring, but if you want oats to
stand up under your soil conditions
and produce crop get in line for
better oats. If you want to plant
white oats, the Wisconsin oats
known as Forward is especially
adapted to the heavier soils of this
locality. 1t will lodge some but it
viii still produce a crop if it does
lodge. If you want a real early
oats for late planting and an oat that
viii stand up we'll under heavy soil
conditions plant the Wisconsin No. Z.
1t is a yellow cat that yields very
well under northern Wisconsin con-
ditions. If your soil is light and do
not lodge very easily Wisconsin No.
/ or Swedish Select oats will pro-
duce you a good crop. Buy good
oats and if it is not graded, do so
and test it before planting.
Beware of Foreign Grown Seed.
If YOU must buy clover or
timothy seed beware of foreign
grown seed and of noxious weeds.
Foreign grown seed will not stand up
under Wisconsin conditions. The
only thing that we can say for it is
that it is seed at low price. 1t
wouldn't pay you to plant it if you
got it free of charge. Plant Wis
consin grown seed if you possibly
can The so-called reasonable
clover seeds offered for sale are
either old seeds or foreign grown
seeds or seeds full of noxious weeds
or other foreign matter When you
buy your clover seed go to a re-
sponsible dealer and make him give
you seed that will come up to Wis
consin standards of purity and pay
him what the seed is worth. 1t will
mean a larger hay crop for you next
year When buying clover seeds
look out for the following noxious
weeds Buckhorn, Canada Thistle,
Russian Thistle, White Cookie, Sheep
Sorrel, Dock, Plantain and the Wild
Mustards. A mature weed will
produce from 1000 to 100000
seeds per plant. One weed seed to
1000 clover seeds can do a lot of
damage if it gets half a chance.
Remember this when you buy your
clover seed.
Vitality Is Important.
The next thing is to find out if
your seeds have the vitality to grow.
Farm seeds sold in Wisconsin show a
termination test but it is wise to
make the thing doubly sure All
farm seeds should be tested before
they are planted If you are test
ing grains or the clovers, or shelled
corn, take representative sample
and test 100 seeds out of this
sample. If you are testing ear
corn (the best method to test corn is
in the earl take at least six kernels
from each ear.
There are several methods used TO
test farm seeds.