BULLETIN 77. MARCH, 1905, 



EXPERIMENT STATION 

 IOWA STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS 



AMES. IOWA. 



SELECTING AND PREPARING SEED CORN. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY. 



BY P. G. HOLDEN. 



The condition of seed corn throughout Iowa this year is such as to cause 

 the gravest apprehension. Personal examinations of corn in every section of 

 the State have been made and the Station is now making extensive tests of 

 samples sent in for germination. 



There seems to be a general impression that, since the corn apparently 

 dried out well last fall, there will be no danger of having poor seed. The 

 fact is that there has seldom been so large a percentage of the corn which 

 was killed. Frequently one ear will be good and the very next one poor: 

 one side of the ear may be alive and the other one dead and, of two neigh- 

 boring kernals on the same ear, one will grow and the other will not. 



This peculiar condition is probably due principally to three causes. First, 

 the season was slow and the corn did not mature properly and, as a con- 

 sequence, there was an unusually large amount of moisture left in the corn. 

 The shrinkage experiments, which have been carried on by the Station, show 

 that the corn contained an average of about thirty-six per cent of water at 

 the beginning of the cribbing season. Second, the dry weather during Oc- 

 tober dried the corn oflf and it appeared to be dry when in reality it was not. 

 Many were so confident that the corn was dry and would keep, that no pains 

 were taken to store it in a dry place. Third, the unusually cold weather 

 during the latter part of November and first of December either killed the 

 germ or weakened it greatly, except where the seed was protected or where 

 unusual pains had been taken to dry it out thoroughly. 



Seed corn that was stored in a dry place, such as the attic, before the 

 20th of October, is in good condition except in some cases where the corn 

 moulded'or grew, or both, from the lack of ventilation. 



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