26S STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



CORN CULTURE. 



In the study of corn culture, the ultimate object is to procure the 

 largest possible yield of grain and fodder. To do this we must have : 



1. Strong vigorous plants, 



2. . The right number of these in each hill, and 



3. Each plant, ov stalk, producing at least one good ear. 



To secure these there must be 



1. Good seed corn, 



2. Good soil, and 



3. Good practice, 



SEED CORN. 



The most vigorous plants can be produced only from a good quality 

 of seed corn. Such corn can be best selected from the stalks before 

 harvesting. Seek for ears 



1. Of good size and proper proportions, 



2. Properly situated on the stalk, not too high and not 



too low, 



3. With the ear pendent. 



The parent stalk should be of good size and it is desirable that it 

 have an abundance of leaves. In Michigan we grow corn for fodder as 

 well as for grain. 



The ears may be removed from the stalks as rapidly as they are 

 selected. Not a few practical farmers, however, and some investigators 

 urge that the ears should remain upon the stalks until husking time. 

 If this practice be followed, then, as rapidly as the ears are selected, as 

 described above, they shcwld be marked by tying a bright string upon 

 them or in some other way, so that the buskers may recognize them at 

 husking time and set the ears apart. Many ears selected in this way may 

 be found to be unsatisfactory in size, shape, etc., for seed purposes when 

 husked. 



PRECAUTIONS. 



In selecting seed ears remember that in drying they will probably 

 shrink at least ten per cent, both in length and circumference. A ten- 

 inch ear will shrink in drying to nine 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 sufBciently 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 sufficient amount of seed corn should be carefully selected 

 as above described 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 



