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Show Raise More Corn of Better Quality rar-nne whose rows run rt ' :ht and who-s measurement I nearly fix largo two inches from th tip us It 1st two inches from tie butt. hn kernels are uniform In size und shapo and color. It should liavo a fairly TIIK lime won when It was thought anybody any-body having made a failure In other line of business coulil take up the. art of farming and make a success of It. That lime has ubout. If not altogether, passed. By Theodore T. Ellis Breeder of Corn and Farmers' Institute Lecturer well-covered tip, with well-rounded butt and small, deep cavity. Having Hav-ing secured the nearest to your ideal, see how ' many you can find by comparing each ear with J your Ideal. Continue this through all your heed corn. Shell and plant on the south or west f-lde of your corn field. Select jour seed from these rowo and continue from year to year, and you ran wonderfully Improve any seed you may now have on hand. The height of the stalk, the shape and size of ihe eftr, the shape and size of the rob and kernel can be thanked to your far:cy by selection. Ern the food elements of the kernel can be changed from low protein to high protein, from high oil to low oil. from high to low in carbohydrate, and vice versa. Why should vo, as farmers, buy our concentrates, such as oil-meal, oil-meal, cotton seed meal. Farming Ik distinctly an art. and he who feels ho bus nil the knowledce necessary for his business busi-ness Is camping on dangerous dan-gerous ground. Genesis I., 26, says: . "Ard flod said. 'Let uu moke man in our image; after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the flesh of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all tho earth and over every' creeping thing that ert'Cpclh upon the earth." Are we, as farmers, exercising this dominion or power along the lines of progress as thoroughly thorough-ly us we should? Tho time is pa9l for brawn without brain, or brain without brawn; both aro neccsuiiry, but brain over Is in the lead. Eternal vigilance Is the price of success, and he who plants s,ced corn that in of doubtful germination ger-mination h running the risk of the failure of his The Value of Corn for Seed Cannot Be Fully Determined by External Appearance A great clianqc has taken place within recent years in the way farmers look upon seed corn. Not many years a0 the poor corn was selected as seed, just as to-day the smallest potatoes arc planted. It is to the credit of agricultural colleges col-leges that such a practice is being abandoned, and to-day not only the best corn by external nppearance is being ued as seed, but the internal condition of the kernels is also considered. The modern farmer dues nor think of shelling the nubbin; nub-bin; fur his seed supply. He has learned that kernels from nubbins produce nubbins and lie plants only the product of the finest ami best yielding strip in the vhole field, taking into account the size and shape of ear, number and spacing of rows of kernels, height of ear on the stalk, its early maturing' qualities and other desirable characteristics entering .into the make-up of a profitable car of seed corn. Select the seed for the next jcar from this car's crop. most Important crop. There are a good nmny ways of testing test-ing the feed, such as plates of fand method, the Ikjx and blotter method and the, geneva or method of capillary attraction. at-traction. The writer has used the plates of sand successfully, but prefers the following fol-lowing method: Partly fill with soil a box three or four Inches Jeep ami eighteen Inches wide by llnee feet In length Dace on u table or on the floor in your seedrooin fi row of corn. Take a kernel two Inches from the lip, turn the ear one-quarter around and take a kernel near the center, then turn the ear one-quarter around again and take a kernel above the renter, then giving the ear another one-quarter turn to take one near the butt; thus having all four sides of tho ear represented. Beginning In one corner of the box. place these four kernels In a row In the order they were taken from the ear. Now take the next ear In the rw and continue as before until the row across the box is filled. Lay another row of ears on the first row and from them fill another row across Ihe box as before, first taking from tip. then middle ami lastly from the butt. Continue until the box is filled, then cover tightly and place In a moderately warm place for u few days. When germination takes place you can at once go to the row's of ears and discard such ears as have not germinated. You will not only he able to do this, but you -will know what part of rnrh ear failed to germinate. Although the i-rnp of corn w as i ery large last year, yet It might l.avo been S per cent larger by the proper testing of the fecd before planting. While the Importance of good seed Is a potent factor in a good corn crop, yet It I not the only one, for upon the proper preparation prepa-ration of the mill depends the "more of It" part of the crop, and even the fertility of tho soil itself. The individuality of the soil partlrle should never be lost by w orking the soil w hen It Is wet. thereby pressing tocether millions of soil particles In one called a lump, thu reducing Ihe amount of plant fond locked up in these lumps. Every soli particle oucht to come In eon-tact eon-tact with the air. This Insures perfect ventilation ven-tilation for the escape of plant excreta or the toxic gases emanating from all agricultural agricul-tural phints detrimental to their own growth. This work cannot be done after Ihe crop is planted. No wise farmer will burn his stalks or stubble, thus reducing the amount of humus, which' Ik ho valuable In glvin; color and hence heat to the soil, and also valuable in absorbing moisture, thus preventing washing, wash-ing, also In Its ability to prevent evaporation. All ground Intended for corn should be thoroughly disked to the depth of from two to three Inches before plowing, nllowlng the dllt to lap half. This will cut up the stalks and stubble and thoroughly Incorporate it with the soil. Instead of Its being In the hot-' torn of the furrow acting as a block to the upward movement of the soli moisture fiom subsoil to furrow. I believe Ihe time Is fast approaching for Intensive cultivation. I also believe a dual-purpose, dual-purpose, sod and stubble plow Is a hindrance to intensive cultivation, an it does not crumble crum-ble the soil in turning as much as does a short mold -bo.inl plow. It is very necessary lliat the nlr come In contact with all the soli as deep as we plow, thereby aiding in liberating liber-ating the plant food contained therein. Instead of plowing a whole Held beforo harrowing, harrow each lialf-day'a plowing before leaving the field. Conserve the moisture. moist-ure. If the ground Is at all lough, let tho harrow down nearly flat, place a board across il to Mand on and with three horses attached at-tached you can firm and level your ground at the same time. It will also mush many o'f the lumps. A roller ought never to be used unices It Is" followed with a harrow. While the work of the roller Is beneficial in mashing the lumps. It also presses tho soli particles closer together, thereby adding to the warmth of the soil. Rut In producing this beneilclnl effect on the soil it has also produced a condition detrimental to the crop by surface packing, thereby allowing the rapid evaporation of the moisture: hence follow fol-low with the harrow. Conserve the moisture. Kail plowing Intended for corn should be thoroughly disked In the spring, as soon as dry enough to work. This conserves tho moisture. While experiments a, the Illinois station have shown that corn planted one Inch deep produced better corn than If planted three, four or live Inches deep, yet I think local conditions should govern the depth somewhat. some-what. While corn planted one Inch deep on level black soil doe.s best corn planted on lighter colored rolling bind should be planted deeper for two reasons First, light soil Is several degrees colder than black soil, hence '".-It will require" more time fur germination, .'and during that extra time will dry out more. -Second, on rolling ground the drainage 13 "iliuch faster and the soil more likely to he . removed by washing. Two kernels of well-tested well-tested seed are sufficient for one hill. One acre planted three feet eight Inches each way would contain 3.240 hills, or 6.4.NO stalks. If . each stalk produced an ear weighing ono-half ono-half a pound the yield would be forty-six bushels to the acre, ami If each ear run bq made to weigh one pound we would have a . j eld of niiu ( -Iwo hushels per acre. Let us , Krnw a less number of acres, but put Ihe ';ame or more labor on the amount we do Taise. If one has a gooi". late-maturing variety t and wishes to make It earlier, go through the Held as Soon as the husks begin to ripcil and select these ears, or plant only that part of tho ear from the center to the butt, discarding dis-carding the other half. Always gather plenty plen-ty of seed, and then dining the winter lay .several rows across the table one car deep, i Look il out carefully and select your ideal gluten meai, uricei diooii or tankane. when we can grow these valuable feed elements more cheaply by a system of careful selection of seed? Protein is the base of all animal tissue, and Is absolutely necessary neces-sary In building the bone, hair, tendons, ligaments, liga-ments, nerves and lean meat. The carbohydrates carbohy-drates are heat and fat producer". The merit of clinical consist in the fact that the manufacturers manu-facturers guarantee It to contain not over a certain per cent of fat. Wo buy concentrates for Ihe protein they contain. Thirty-three and one-third jer cent of nllmeal Is protein; then In a ton of clinical we would have 663 pounds of protein, and if It costs $30 per ton our protein will cost us 4'i cents per pound. Tankage is guaranteed to cnntaln 60 per cent protein, and In one ton we would hao 1,200 pounds of the food elements which we buy the ton to get. Tankage at J38 per ton would make ItH protein content cost 3 1-6 cents per pound. Ordinary corn contains about 10 per cent protein. Some ears may be found to contain twice as muii. protein as others. Some ears contain thirteen times as much carbohydrates as protein. Hy the careful selecting of these cars and planting them by themselves we can soon raise the protein content of our corn. If we can Increase Ihe protein content ef our corn to the extent of one pound p"r bushel we have increased the feeding value 1 cents per bus-hel If you will hold several kernels of corn In front of a strong light you will discover some are muih' more opaque than others. If the corn has matured properly prop-erly those of a less cloudy appearance will be found to contain more protein than the others. The safest way la to lay the kernels op a table, germ side up, and with a sharp knife cut off the lips Just below the germ. After you have cut and examined several you will notlco some have less starch' surrounding sur-rounding the germ at the tips. You will also discover that those having the least starch . have the most of the horny part of the kernel ker-nel and vice versa. |
