EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 



341 



COKN. 



SELECTING^ STORING^, CURING AND TESTING FOR SEED. 



Circular No. 3. 



In order to secure the largest possible yields of corn, including grain 

 and fodder, the grower must carefulh^ and intelligently select, cure, 

 test and grade his seed corn. It is true that many farmers obtain their 

 seed corn from the crib in the spring and secure what appears to be 



Fig. 1. — The plants from 15 ears of carefully saved seed corn, in germinator test. 



good stands and reasonably good crops. This does not mean, however, 

 that the stand might not have been made better and the crop larger had 

 these same farmers given more care to the selection, storing and treat- 

 ment of their seed corn. The condition of corn, in the spring of 1908, 

 that had stood during the winter in shock or crib emphasizes in a strik- 

 ing way the risks that are run in using seed that has not been properly 

 saved. Of a large number of ears tested at the college for vitality, those 

 selected from the shock invariably produced an exceedingly low num- 

 ber of germinations. More than 50% of the ears produced no germina- 

 tion whatever, and of those that did show vitality it was rare that 100% 

 of the kernels germinated. The conditions under which corn passed 'the 

 winter were exceedingly bad, but even with the best conditions, there 

 are influences, such as freezing, molding, and the like, which of necessity 



