No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 597 



about thirty per cent in the stand of that corn. Another thing I 

 found was that fully ten per cent were barren stalks, making alto- 

 gether a loss of forty per cent; in other words, forty per cent of that 

 field was not producing anything. Now you go to Mr. Kelly who 

 runs this hotel and ask him what his idea of management is, and I 

 presume he will tell you that he tries to have every room in 

 this building filled by people who pay their bills. The same prin- 

 ciple applies to corn fields. You want your fields fully occupied by 

 corn stalks that bear corn. Yet this field that I have just spoken 

 of is not very far from the average. iVny one who has counted 

 in this way will tell you that from forty to fifty acres out of every 

 hundred is wasted — has no corn in it. And it is on this question 

 that the vitality of the seed has its practical bearing. While it is 

 true that we can plant corn, every grain of which will produce, a 

 great deal of corn that is planted is very low in vitality, and it cuts 

 down not only the stand, but the yield of the corn. 



While I am on this subject, I will describe briefly, some method 

 by which the vitality of the corn can be determined. You cannot 

 tell by looking at an ear of corn what it will do in the same manner 

 as you can determine its maturity. The best thing we can do is 

 to test it and find whether we have sufficiently productive seed be- 

 fore we plant it. That may be done in this way. You take a box 

 eighteen inches square — you may make it larger or smaller, but I 

 think that is about the size I would use — and about three inches 

 deep; fill this box one-half to three-quarters full of clean saw dust; 

 not dirty saw dust; wet thoroughly, and after it has been leveled 

 spread over it a piece of cloth that has also been wet, such as this, 

 which has been marked up into squares of about one and one- 

 half inches. Now, if you buy your seed corn — I don't advise this, 

 but if you have not enough I suppose you will have to buy it — pick 

 from the ears a sample of grains from each ear, numbering your 

 squares to correspond with the ears from which you have taken 

 the grains, which are also numbered, and put in suitable place to 

 germinate. Take from five to ten grains out of an ear, turning it 

 over, because it often happens that one side of the ear has more 

 vitality than the other, according to the way the ear has lain. The 

 upper side is often more dried out than the lower. Thus is becomes 

 necessary to take it from all sides. Take grains from ear No. 1, 

 and put them in square No. 1, and so on; then moisten it thoroughly 

 and cover it with some burlap bagging, and set it away where it 

 will be sufficiently warm to germinate the 'corn. If you have a 

 smokehouse or something of that kind, which requires heat to be 

 kept up it will do very nicely; then let it stand for six days and see 

 what the result is. If it does not germinate more than four grains 

 out of five, or eight out of ten, it will not be suitable for planting. 

 The chances are that it has not sufficient vitality to produce a 

 good crop. 



I have been looking over the average production of corn in Penn- 

 sylvania for the last forty years, and find that it runs somewhere 

 between thirty-two and forty bushels per acre. Now it is possible 

 to increase that yield by adding any assistance in our power 

 that will enable it to do its part. We find that the corn is usually 

 planted three stalks in a hill, three feet apart, and if we take care 



