Smyrna times., 1931-04-22
BETTER GRADE CORN ASSURED
IF FARMERS WILL TREAT SEED
r. e. WILSON, COUNTY AGENT
POINTS TO ECONOMIC VALUE

Treated Seed Will Stimulate the
termination ard Result i'm In
creased Yield, He Tells Farmers
For the past five years demon
strations have been conducted in
Kent county to show the economic
value of treating seed corn with
dust disinfectants for the control
of root rot and other diseases that
are carried on the seed, in addition
to bringing to the attention Of the
farmers the fact that this seed
treatment will also stimulate the
termination and result in an in
creased yield per acre of a more
solid corn. A few farms have been
selected each year by county agent
Russell E. Wilson on which to con-
duct these seed treatment demon
strations in cooperation with DR.. ].
F. Adams, plant pathologist of the
University of Delaware and the
State Board of Agriculture, and
some very interesting results have
been obtained with reference to the
difference in yields in favor of the
treated seed and the general con-
dition of the corn at harvest. With
the exception Of one farm, this
project was conducted on the same
eight farms in 1929 as were used
for this purpose in 1928, and pre-
vious to this period similar demon
strations were established on five
other farms, two of which were
used for this work for three con-
secutive years. This project IN
1880, however, was carried on with
an entirely new group of eight
farmers in order that other corn
growers might become interested
/ in this seed treatment practice,
also as a means of securing yield
+ records and other data to compare
with those which were obtained
from the demonstrations Of pre-
vious years in the county.
Smyrna Farmers Experimenting
The two dust disinfectants which
were used in the demonstrations
last year were Semesan Jr. and
Merko, which are the same ones
that have been used in former
demonstrations since they are the
only seed corn treatment dusts on
the market at the present time.
These two dusts were used in COM
parison with each other last year
on the farms of Howard c. Dea-
kyne, Lawrence E. Cain, Dewey
Sapp, and Frank z. Morrison,
while on the farms Of Dudley
Crossley, Elwood Kemp, T. NJ. Nc
Ginnis, and Howard Wix the Sem
esan Jr. only was used. Each Of
these materials was used at the
rate of two ounces to a bushel of
shelled corn, and the treating pro-
cess was done in closed revolving
containers in the same manner
that wheat is treated in order that
the dust may become thoroughly
and evenly mixed with the seed.
The average production of corn
that was treated with Semesan Jr.
was sos bushels per acre, and that
which was treated with Merko
Welded 50.4 bushels, while the av-
erage yield of corn from the check
areas in the same fields was 46.8
bushels per acre, or difference Of
3.65 bushels in favor Of the treated
seed.
Less Soft and Immature Corn
The yield results of this project
for the past four years show that
the average production per acre
for the treated corn was 51.62
bushels, as compared to 4779
bushels for the untreated, resulting
in an increase of 4.8 bushels per
acre in favor of this practice. Al
though this increase in yield per
acre is of Importance to the carry
ing out of the program of economic
production, the greatest argument
in favor of seed treatment is the re
duction in the amount of Gull and
soft corn at harvest, for in prac-
tically every instance there was
less soft and immature corn in the
treated areas than in the remand
er of the same field on each farm.
ACCIDENT NEAR FREDERICK