CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION, 9I 



only, then one variety is enough. We are relying too much on far-off 

 and much advertised sorts, and not enough on our own ability to modify 

 our own corn to suit our own conditions as to climate, soil, etc. In the 

 foregoing I have described what I deem to be the most profitable type 

 of corn for Missouri, leaving it to the judgment of the reader to de- 

 termine ,which of the varieties now in use best fills the bill. 



Wishing the Missouri Corn Growers' Association much success 

 and commending their earnest work, I respe.ctfuUy submit this paper. 



STRO-NG VITALITY IN SEED CORN—HOW TO GET IT. 



(Hon. E. D. Funk, Bloomington, 111.) 



I will tell you how we gather our seed corn, and the different 

 methods we have tried. I will tell you how the government is per- 

 forming an experiment which extends over a period of about five or six 

 years on our farm — an experiment of the time of gathering seed corn 

 and the nature of storing seed corn. I will also tell you what the au- 

 thorities at Washington, after a three years' experiment, have decided 

 is the proper way to store seed corn. 



We gather our seed corn as early as possible, but, of course, the 

 time depends on the season. We gather just as long as we can before 

 a hard storm sets in ; a rain, followed by a hard freeze, or something of 

 that sort, prevents the further gathering of seed corn. We generally 

 expose that seed corn to a natural ventilation, a natural circulation of 

 the air ; or perhaps, we have such a constructed seed house that the 

 ventilation will be forced. You can readily construct a seed house of 

 that sort yourself by making a series of doors along the sides, place 

 your seed house well up from the ground ; and then putting in the cone 

 of the roof especially constructed windows. We use kiln-drying win- 

 dows, which create a suction up; these are used in kiln-drying houses; 

 and you know that if kiln-dried corn ever becomes dampened again, it 

 is spoiled ; consequently there must be a supply of hot air all the time — 

 no moist air can come in. The corn that is gathered about the first of 

 October and stored either in crates, or loosely thrown in, in such a seed 

 house, or hung up on a series of wires along the roof of the seed house, 

 is the very best germinating corn I know of. 



Now, we attempt to dry the corn as rapidly as possible; we attempt 

 to drive off all the moisture ; and then to keep the seed house at a tem- 

 perature of a uniform heat, usually kept 35 degrees above zero. Dur- 

 ing the winter there are cold snaps where the thermometer will go 



