SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETING. I93 



endeavor to develop some one particular kind of seed so that 

 he can be a distributor of good seed in the locality in which he 

 lives. One of the greatest reasons why the average farmer does 

 not sow better seed is because he does not know where to get it, 

 and cannot get it. If he paid you the same price right on your 

 farm, or only 75 per cent of the price, which he pays for the 

 same seed to seed distributors, wholesalers, you would be mak- 

 ing more than you do now and he would certainly obtain far 

 greater value for his money. 



Another branch of the corn industry which has received, in 

 fact, less attention from the standpoint of seed selection than 

 the growing of flint corn in Maine, is the production of sweet 

 corn. Do you know that most of the sweet corn grown in the 

 State of Maine has in years past been produced from seed that 

 came from Connecticut and Massachusetts as well as southern 

 New Hampshire? Such seed introduced from southern points 

 rarely gives the yield and matures as early as seed which has 

 been acclimated in the regions of our corn packing centers. 

 Corn packers admit that the finest quality of corn canned in the 

 State of Maine has for years been developed from A-Iaine grown 

 seed. The only reason why they do not use more of this Maine 

 grown seed is because they cannot obtain enough. Members 

 of the Maine Seed Improvement Association who are alive to 

 the possibilities of growing sweet corn in the State of Maine 

 must certainly reahze that here is an opportunity to develop a 

 special line of seed production. In each locality wherever there 

 is a sweet corn canning factory, there ought to be one or two 

 members of the Maine Seed Improvement Association who are 

 growing sweet corn for seed to be planted in the vicinity of that 

 factory. We already have two memibers of the Seed Improve- 

 ment Association who are producing sweet corn for seed. One 

 produced three acres this year and the other about six. One 

 of the principal reasons why canners do not encourage farmers 

 to grow their own seed is because most corn growers do not 

 realize what quality means in canned corn. The average farmer 

 in selecting corn will select an ear that looks big, has large kernels 

 and comes from plants of good forage quality. In fact, he is 

 inclined to select coarse seed and does not realize that a smaller 

 ear with a larger number of rows of kernels of greater depth 

 will often cut out more corn than the large ear of coarse type. 

 It has been proved that there is very little difference in the two 



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