56 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



No farmer can afford to depend upon imported seed for the main part of 

 his crop. If he is unable to secure a variety from his neighbors that has 

 been grown and that has matured well in his locality and ic becomes neces- 

 sary to import seed, it should be secured from the'Shortest distance possible, 

 east or west, as such seed is preferable to that grown in the north or south, 

 but it is safer to import it from the north than from the south. The southern 

 varieties will produce large stalks and heavy foliage, and the large, deep 

 kerneled ears will be late in maturing. Northern grown corn will be smaller 

 in ear and finer in stalk, but will mature earlier. Seed corn imported from 

 a distance, and especially from a southern latitude, seldom gives satisfac- 

 tory results the first two or three years, even though the seed be the best, 

 which oftimes is not the case. 



It is well known that the most of the seed corn put on the market by 

 seedsmen, is bought of farmers in crib lots, shelled, screened and sacked, 

 ready for sale, little or no attention being paid to the selection. In fact, it 

 is generally handled with a scoop shovel and is known as the ' 'scoop shovel 

 method of selection." 



The chances are that the farmer has in his own crib better corn than that 

 which he purcha.-es from seedsmen at four or five times the market prices- 

 Then he runs the risk of it not maturing in his locality. 



If it were simply a matter of losing the price of the bushel of imported 

 seed corn it would not be so serious, but when we consider that a bushel of 

 seed corn ought to produce 400 bushels of corn, worth from one hundred 

 and thirty to one hundred and sixty dollars, the serious nature of the ques" 

 tion i§ very apparent. 



SELECTING AND STORING SHED CORN. 



One of the best plans is to begin this spring by selecting fifty or one hun- 

 dred of the very best ears in your seed corn, while you are making the test 

 "of germination. These ears should then be butted and tipped and each ear 

 -shelled by itself and carefully studied. The kernels should have a bright, 

 cheerful appearance, be full and plump at the tips and have a large clear 

 germ, otherwise they should be discarded. It is very important that this 

 choice seed should be planted at the time of the first planting, putting it 

 on the south or west side of the field, unless there is danger that it would 

 become mixed from some neighbor's corn near by. In this case, it may 

 be put on the other side of the field. The important thing is to get it in 

 early and, if possible, on fall plowed ground. This will allow the corn 

 to become thoroughly matured early next fall. The great importance of this 

 can not be over estimated. It is the late maturing corn that is caught by the 

 breezes, as there is not sufficient time for it to dry out. 



All the seed corn for the next crop should be selected from this patch 

 which was planted from the very best ears It is a very common practice to 

 select the occasional good ears found throughout the entire husking season. 

 There are three important reasons why this should not be done. In the first 

 place, we are more likely to neglect the work until too late, when we find 

 ourselves without good seed for the next year. Again, many of the kernels 

 on these good ears selected throughout the entire field or season have neces- 

 sarily been fertilized by pollen from the scrub stalks and those which are 

 perhaps barren. In other words, we have simply selected a good female. 



