THE SEED-CORN SITUATION. 



The writer's ex])erience in Nebraska will illustrate this point. In 

 assisting in addressins;^ farmers on corn trains in 1905, emphasis was 

 ])laced upon seed-corn preservation and exj^erimental results were 

 given to show that good preservation sometimes increases produc- 

 tiveness by 18 bushels per acre. The experiments were conducted in 

 the East and the general opinicm prevailed among the Nebraska 

 speakers, as well as among Nebraska farmers, that seed preservatic^n 

 was of httle importance in Nebraska. Frequent statements were 

 made that the autumns were long and dry and seed corn needed no 

 special care. In contrast to this, corn trains, operated throughout 

 the State of Nebraska in the spring of 1912, carried the following 

 news to farmers: 



Tlicn; are very few localities in thn State where more than half of the ears will 

 grow, and in many places not more than 1 oar out of 10 will grow. A very hard freeze 

 the first week in November killed or greatly weakened a large majority of the corn 

 which was not of an early variety or which had not been picked and properly cared 

 for before that tima. With the facts before us it becomes quite a problem to know 

 just where the seed will come from for planting the Nebraska cornfields. For the 

 entire State a decreased yield of 5 bushels per acre, due to a poor stand, would result in 

 a total decreased harvest of 32,500,000 bushels of corn. At 50 cents a bushel this 

 amounts to a loss of $16,250,000. 



The farmers who gathered their seed in September or early October and had it 

 dried out before the freezes came are the ones who have good seed. These are the 

 only farmers in so far as the station has been able to learn who have seed that they 

 can depend up<m. 



MEANS OF PREVENTING SUCH SITUATIONS. 



Wlien advice is given it should be the best advice possible. The 

 usual ad^dce given for meeting poor seed-corn situations is to test 

 sej^arately the germination of each ear. The objection to this advice 

 is the likelihood that the practice A\dll become a yearly habit, being 

 recommended by good authorities as the best possible procedure. 

 Why not gather and dry the seed early and thus prevent the deplorable 

 situation ? Tills will not only make the testing unnecessary but wiU 

 retain full ])roductiveness — productiveness wliich the germination test 

 can not restore or even reveal. Spring carefulness, no matter how 

 great, can not make up for fall neglect. The situation is due to a 

 lost opportunity. The way to meet properly these oft-recurring 

 losses is to begin at the beginning and prevent them. Ten times 

 more advice has been given regarding germination tests and methods 

 of getting out of bad seed-corn situations than has been given regard- 

 ing methods of keeping out of them. Such conditions are easily 

 prevented in the fall, but can not possibly be rectified in the spring. 

 Twelve years' experience in selecting seed of hundreds of varieties 

 of corn and testing its germination teaches that seed that matures 

 l)roperly and is well i)reserved will germinate weU. And what is of 



[I'ir. 95] 



