IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

 CORN, SELECTION OF SEED, PLANTING AND CULTIVATION. 



John Cownie, Des Moines, Ia. 

 The interest that is now being taken in our great staple, corn, is to 

 me particularly gratifying, as it proves that the farmers of the middle 

 states are beginning to realize that the enormous losses sustained by the 

 use of poor seed and slovenly methods of planting and cultivation are alto- 

 gether unnecesary. I repeat, that the farmers are beginning to realize 

 the amount of their annual losses, for it is apparent to every one 

 familiar with the conditions as they actually exist that little progress 

 has yet been made in securing good seed, the first essential to a good 

 corn crop. 



Our State Agricultural College, realizing the importance of good seed 

 corn, is doing a grand work in its endeavor to educate the farmers of 

 the state to a proper selection of seed corn. But unfortunately the 

 instruction has been given at a season of the year when it was impossi- 

 ble to secure good seed, and the agitation of the subject has brought to 

 the "front many writers and speakers who were mere theorists without 

 practical experience, and their injudicious advice has done incalculable 

 injury in retarding the saving of seed corn in a proper manner. 



The selection of seed corn in the winter or spring is a fallacy that 

 should be condemned before any real progress can be made, and the 

 selection of seed corn from a crib, the numbering of the ears, and the 

 testing of the kernels in moistened blotting paper or newspapers is so 

 radically wrong, and so contrary to correct methods, that it is not sur- 

 prising that so little real progress in securing a full stand of corn by 

 one planting has been accomplished. I have often seen corn germinate 

 when tested in moistened paper or in wet cloths, and to all appearances 

 both root and stalk were all that could be desired. But planted in 

 earth, with natural conditions, there was not sufficient vitality in the 

 kernel to produce a stalk with power enough to come through the 

 ground, and a careful examination showed that both root and stalk 

 had given up the struggle for lack of support from the weakened kernel. 

 This explains the reason for so much disappointment in corn failing to 

 grow in the field when the test with the moistened paper or damp saw- 

 dust had shown good germination. 



But even if corn selected from the crib in the winter or spring has 

 sufficient vitality to grow in the field, the stalks will be weak and 

 spindling, in striking contrast with the strong, vigorous growth of seed 

 corn secured in a proper manner. In addition to a strong vigorous 

 growth, the carefully kept seed corn, full of life and vitality, will 

 germinate much sooner than the corn of weakened vitality, and growth 

 is also more rapid. All this is so well known to those who have had 

 practical experience in testing corn in this manner, and who are close 

 observers of the conditions as they actually exist, that the mere state- 

 ment of these facts should convince every farmer that there is but one 

 right way to save seed corn, and if this method is not followed, loss is 



inevitable. 



As an object lesson from a cartoon, I cannot imagine a better sub- 

 ject than the picture of a shiftless farmer selecting his seed corn from 



