SEED CORN. 43 



not follow but that circumstances may strongly recommend a 

 corn seed which has been grown in a climate more favored 

 with warmth. Let not the choice be unduly influenced by the 

 size of the ear, for the size of the crop is far more important. 

 Do not consider your own corn as perfect, or any seed you 

 may obtain as being beyond improvement. When your seed 

 is obtained, manure judiciously, neither too much for profit 

 nor too little for the needs of the plant, and cultivate fre- 

 quently and timely, remembering that through the process of 

 cultivation the development of the plant into fruitage may be 

 hindered or aided, and that this process is under your control. 

 The growing of seed should be a specialty, requiring as it 

 does constant care and thoughtful observation. A grower of 

 seed by business should always surpass the farmer with whom 

 its growing is but incidental ; and the best farmer is the very 

 one who can encourage profitably to himself the seed raiser, 

 by purchasing at a price which will remunerate for the trouble 

 which is required. We do not wish to be understood as dis- 

 couraging the farmer from improving his own seed, for this 

 he should do, for improvement will always follow his judi- 

 cious etibrts ; we but express the belief that until the grow- 

 ing receives the farmer's absorbing attention, he cannot hope 

 to equal the results of him who makes the growing of this 

 seed his constant business. As the world is at present con- 

 stituted, there must be always those who have to sell and 

 those who desire to buy. If one farmer in a neighborhood 

 will raise better corn and larger crops, he must necessarily 

 find a market for his surplus of seed the moment his neigh- 

 bors discover the fact, and have faith in the honesty of his 

 selections. The premium ears at our cattle shows, by divert- 

 ing attention from the true issues, has been an injury to corn 

 growing. Whenever a society shall ofl'er a premium for a 

 distinct quality of seed, then improvement will become rapid. 

 If a second committee were required after a first committee 

 had awarded the premiums, to weigh each trace, shell its corn, 

 calculate its proportions to waste in percentages, inquire 

 into the yield and the fodder proportion, we think their full 



