The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-11-17
BY J. G.. Haney. Agricultural Exten-
ton Department., International Har-
yrStpr Go


vcstcr Co.
During the past few wears at the
Corn Shows in North Dakota and
Montana, and even in Manitoba and
Saskatchewan. there has appeared a
variety of yellow dent corn called
"Minncsota 49," which has attracted
a great deal of attention. This Min
nesota IL has proved to be much
earlier than the standard Minnesota
l3 is supposed to be. 1t has salso
stood up well in all the variety tests
because of the fact that it is a pure
strain of corn and has been grown
as such since it was developed by
the Minnesota Experiment Station
some 25 or 30 years ago. As the
source of this seed has been at our
Demonstration Farms, the editor of
this paper has asked US to briefly
outline our procedure in developing
this strain or variety of Minnesota
No. -.
Corn Essential TO Our Farms
Our demon stration farms at Aber
deem, South Dakota, and Grand Forks,
North Dakota, were established in the
fall Of 1912. In travelling over the
territory in this region at that time,
the fact that there was very little
corn grown and also that so much
of it seemed very poorly adapted to
this North country, led US to believe
that one of the things which VIC
should give first attention would be
the development of better variety
or strain of corn for this region.
There had been some experimental
work done by the stations but at that
time corn was not considered Of very
much Importance. During the fall
and winter of 1912, we spent a good
deal Of time in investigating the diff
ferent varieties of corn. We secur-
ed in all something over twenty W.
ieties which were planted and closely
observed. One of the most promising
of these was ten-ear sample OF
Minnesota 13 corn which had been
grown by Mr.. l.. A. Thorpe Of May
Vile, North Dakota. Mr.. Thorpe at
that time was one Of the most en-
thusiastic corn growers in the Red
River Valley. This sample of corn
had taken first prize at the Corn and
Glover Show at Grand Forks in 1911.
In order to give these ears Of corn
a fair try-out. we planted thSm in
about the center of a field OF Min
nesota l3. The seed for this was Sc
cured on another farm in the Red
River Valley. These ears were each
planted in row by themselves as far
as they would go, in this field. In
the fall they were husked out scpar-
ately and weighed up. The surpris-
ing fact was that some of these ears
had yielded almost twice as much
ripe corn as other ears that looked
identically the same when they were
planted. From the four or five best
yielding ears, we selected all of the
best ears for seed purposes and from
among these we picked out enough
best ears to plant a small seed corn
patch the following year. We did
not follow up the ear-to-row test,
which might have been a good thing
to do.
In the fall as soon as the corn was
mature enough for seed, we went
through this seed corn patch and
carefully selected bushel or two of
the best ears from the most ideal
stalks. We were careful to take into
consideration all Of the factors that
go to make good yielding corn for
this region. We have followed this
practice of picking the very best ears
LudI We COuIu lIuU anu IHCIH
in a seed patch and selecting the
best ears for another seed corn patch
the next year, every year since the
beginning of our work with this var
iety Of corn. This means, Of course,
that we have practically a new strain
of corn each year.
Minnesota 13 Suited Us Best
For number of years we also
grew several other varieties but ow.
ing to the fact that this Minnesota
13 seemed to give US better satisfac-
tion as to earliness and yield, we
dropped all others, and for the last
five or six years have grown only
this one variety Of corn on our farms.
While this strain of Minnesota 13
is now considerably smaller than the
original Minnesota 13, or the Mime
sofa l3 that is now being grown in
Southern Minnesota, it has acquired
the ability to mature in much less
time and also seems to be able to
stand a much lower temperature dur
ing the summer.
Last year, 1924, was rather a poor
corn year, but we had sent seed from
our Grand Forks Farm to the Aber-
deem, South Dakota, Farm, and the
Grand Forks seed seemed to mature