602 BOARD OF AGKICULTUK.E. 



SELECTION AND STORING OF SEED CORN. 



The seed should be thoroughly dry in order to keep the vitality unim- 

 paired. A simple and effective plan in ordinary seed selection is to select 

 the seed corn in the field. Tie a box to the rear of the w^agon-box and 

 when a particularly full ear is found on a well developed stalk, throw the 

 ear into the box. A second selection can be made at the corn crib and the 

 ears finally chosen for seed stored in boxes. These boxes should be thor- 

 oughly lined with screen wire drawn over the open top. This will prevent 

 mice and i-ats from eating the seed, and will permit of free ventilation. 

 Now set these boxes in an attic or other room provided with a stove and 

 keep up fire or heat until the ears are thoroughly dried out. The old- 

 fashioned plan of hanging up the seed ears by husks over the open fire 

 was an admirable plan for effecting this result. After once dry the seed 

 will not be effected by the extremes of temperature. In moist and imma- 

 ture kernels the cold freezes the moisture in the young plant and swells the 

 cells, bursting the delicate tissue. If the seed is to be stored on an exten- 

 sive scale, a special building should be prepared set on tile to prevent mice 

 getting into the seed room. The ears should then be ricked up in regular 

 order. A good plan is to lay them between 2 by 6 uprights and set 

 the ricks several inches apart so that the dry air may circulate freely on 

 all sides of the ear. A small stove will dry out the seed in two or three 

 weeks continuous drying. 



SELECTION OF EARS OF SEFD CORN. 



In selecting the seed ears the object is to select such ears as will produce 

 the lai-gest amount of shelled corn. The gi-ower is after corn, and it is 

 with this idea in view that the seed must be selected. In the first place, 

 rough ears of medium size with a large number of rows of kernels weigh 

 out the most shelled corn. The rough kernel is the deep kernel, and with 

 a large number of rows on the cob the greatest amount of corn can be 

 crowded on an ear. This can best be illustrated by an actual weighing 

 test of two different types of corn. In one instance an unimproved ear 

 seventeen and one-half inches long with broad, smooth kernels weighed 

 fourteen ounces; an improved ear of Boone County White, nine and three- 

 fourth inches long and of about equal circumference to the long ear, 

 weighed seventeen ounces. When shelled the long ear produced nine 

 ounces of shelled corn, while the short ear yielded fifteen ounces of shelled 

 corn. The deep kernel type actually outweighed the long, shallow type 

 and there was a difference of six ounces of shelled corn in favor of the 

 short ear. Applying this test to field conditions, providing there were two 

 ears to the hill and an equal number of long and short ears, the improved 

 short ear type would outyield the unimproved thirty-nine bushels per 

 acre. 



