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Show !ShLtUI'INfi StED C8 IN FIELDS Farmer Has Splendid Opportunity Opportun-ity to Start Increasing Next Year's Yield. CURE AND STOHE EARS WELL Hatrack Device Is Easily Made by Cutting an Electrically Welded Wire-Mesh Fence Avoid Damp Atmosphere. Prepared by the United States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture. It costs as much to pJant and cultivate cul-tivate an acre producing 20 bushels f corn as one producing 40 bushels. So, with present labor costs, If a farmer farm-er could reduce his acreage one-half and still get the same corn yield he would consider it good business. Such a program Is probably too much to expect, but the United States Department of Agriculture points out that the American farmer is getting altogether too little yield from his corn land. Just about this time of year a good many farmers are realizing real-izing it. Prepare for Next Year's Crop. Now, or a little later, American farmers have an opportunity to start Increasing next year's corn crop by the selection of seed. Every spring there is a frantic search for good seed corn, and much inferior seed is planted, with resulting inferior yields. The loss is largely due to delay or negligence. Autumn is the time to prepare for a profitable corn crop the following season. Any intelligent farmer can go into his corn field when the corn is mature and selact better seed than he can buy next spring. Unless a community has an experienced and honest corn breeder, the best place for the farmer to obtain seed corn is from the fields on his farm or in his neighborhood, which are planted with a variety that has generally proved successful in (hat particular locality. Too many people consider seed good simply because it will grow. To be first class, seed corn must be: 1. Well adapted to the climatic and soil conditions where it is to be planted. 2. Of a high-yielding variety and fom high-yielding stalks of that variety. va-riety. 3. Well matured and preserved from ripening time until planting time in a manner that will retain its full vitality. vital-ity. 4. Free from disease and insect Injury. In-jury. Such freedom may indicate resistance re-sistance to Infection. As soon as the crop matures, go through the field with a picking bag and select ears from the stalks that have produced the most good corn without having had any special advantages ad-vantages such as excess of space, moisture, or fertility. Avoid the large . rp Si ' Go Tnrougn Fieia witn a Bag and Select Ears From Desirable Stalks. ears on stalks standing singly with an unusual amount of space around them. Preference shoulj be given the plants that have produced most heavily in competition with a full stand of vigorous plants. A well-balanced stalk bearing two good ears will usunlly be found to have produced as much seed as any other stalk. Both ears are equally -valuable for seed, even though one may be much smaller than the other. In the central and southern states, all other things being equal, short thick stalks are preferable. They are not so easily Mown down, and in general are more productive than slender ones. Keep Seed Corn Dry Over Vinter. Since the corn root rot investigations by the United States Department of Agriculture, increasing attention has been paid to germination tests for corn. The improved rag doll germin-ator germin-ator and methods for using It. as well as methods of selecting disease free ears In the field, are described in Farmers' Bulletin 117(5. which will be sent on application to the Department of Agriculture. The question of better seed corn Is one which means so much In dollars and cents that attention should be given it from now on until the seed is ready to go into the grouLd next spring. |