EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 297 



SEIED CORN. 



The most vigorous plant can be produced only from a high grade of 

 seed corn. Such corn can be best selected from the stalk before harvest- 

 ing. Seek for ears of: 



(1) Good proportions, 



(2) Properly situated on the stalks, not too high and not too 



low, 



(3) With end turned down. 



The parent stalk should be of good size and should have an abundance 

 of foliage. In Michigan we grow corn not only for grain but for fodder. 



PRECAUTIONS. 



In selecting seed ears, remember that in drying they will probably 

 shrink at least 10%, both in length and circumference, a 1,0-inch ear will 

 shrink in drying to 9 inches. 



It hardly seems wise to select the earliest maturing ears if they mature 

 unduly early. It would seem better to select ears that mature just 

 sufficiently early to be out of the way of the average early frost. In 

 other words, the corn plants should use the longest safe growing season. 



At least a suflScient amount of seed corn should be carefully selected 

 in this way to plant a few acres from which to select the next year's 

 seed. The rest of the seed may be selected, and often is, from corn 

 husked from the shock, but that so selected, should be from the corn 

 grown from the carefully selected seed of the previous year. All seed 

 corn taken from the husked corn should be selected before freezing can 

 occur. ■ Authorities are agreed that the freezing of corn before it is 

 thoroughly dry lessens its vitality. 



DRYING. 



All seed corn should be at once stored in a warm, dry, airy place to 

 dry. A furnace room is good if it complies with the three named con- 

 ditions. It may do to leave the corn in crates, but there is more or less 

 of danger in the practice, and especially if the corn is over moist. The 

 crate is not safe. Fig. 3 shows an excellent, cheap rack, with corn in 

 place. The racks are 12 feet long and 10 feet high. The posts, which 

 are of 2x4 hemlock, stand 4 feet apart. The strips are cut from sound 

 hemlock or pine boards lx%» and are set in pairs as shown. Each pair 

 carries a tier of corn. The distance betwen any pair and the one above 

 is 4 inches. Six penny nails should be used in nailing on the strips. 

 The seed corn should be placed in rack as shown. 



But wherever placed, the corn should be thoroughly and quickly 

 dried. This removes the possibility of moulding and consequent lessen- 

 ing of vitality. A temperature a little above ordinary room tempera- 

 ture is suggested till the corn is well dried; then a temperature any- 

 where above the freezing point is considered satisfactory. It is thought 

 by many that well dried seed corn will not have its vitality lessened by 

 freezing. Others never allow seed corn, however well dried, to freeze. 

 There can be no doubt that the latter practice is safe. 

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