SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART I. 11 



freezing weather in November, the temperature often reaching fifteen 

 degress above zero or seventeen below freezing. Only a year or two 

 ago this condition was brought forcibly to mind when those who prac- 

 ticed this method found that the seed corn gathered in the early part 

 of November, and at once placed in a dry, warm room, germinated 100 

 per cent, while that gathered after the hard freeze, and placed in the 

 same room, proved unfit for seed, germinating, with the same condi- 

 tions as the corn saved before the cold weather, a fraction over 50 per 

 cent. 



When the new State Hospital at Cherokee was opened, there did not 

 appear to be any place for storing seed corn, except in some of the 

 outbuildings. Knowing that there was always more or less risk in 

 keeping seed corn in buildings without artificial heat, I ordered it to 

 be placed on racks in the basement of the building, and close to the 

 steam heating pipes. I was told that the thermometer often indicated 

 120 degrees in this section of the basement and the corn would be 

 ruined, but with my experience with seed corn I had no fears, and iu 

 the test that was made and in the field, not a single kernel of this seed 

 corn failed to germinate. 



In a paper which I read a number of years ago at a meeting of the 

 Iowa Improved Stock Breeders' Association on Corn Culture, I advised 

 the storing of seed corn in a room or attic over the kitchen for the 

 reason that there is always fire in the farmer's kitchen in the autumn 

 months, and artificial heat could thus be furnished without cost. In the 

 discussion that followed the reading of the paper, it was stated that mice 

 and rats would be brought into the house and that artificial heat was 

 not essential for drying seed corn. To my personal knowledge, some 

 of the parties who took issue with me on this matter have lost thou- 

 sands of dollars since then, on account of planting seed corn kept in 

 an outbuilding during the winter. Had my advice been taken at that 

 time by every farmer in the state, Iowa would today be richer than it 

 is by hundreds of millions of dollars. 



It Is true that unless proper provision is made to guard against 

 rats and mice, these vermin will gain an entrance, but it is an easy 

 matter to prevent them from reaching the corn by either suspending it 

 on strips or laying it on racks set above the floor and the supports 

 covered with tin. 



While with all other methods that I have ever heard of, for saving 

 seed corn and which may prove satisfactory for years, there comes a 

 time when they fail; the method here outlined never fails, and there 

 is not a single farmer in the state of Iowa who has followed this 

 method, who ever had to replant a single hill on account of poor seed 

 corn. 



The seed corn should remain in the room all winter, and thus 

 receive the benefit of the heat from the cooking stove, and it is better if 

 the temperature of the room is kept above the freezing point at all times. 

 Corn loves heat in the field, and a dry, warm atmosphere is the ideal 

 condition for preserving seed, and the corn should remain on the cot) 



