1 40S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



833 



Our HOiViES 



By a. I. Root 



whatsoever a man sowelh, that shall he also reap. — Gal. 6 :7. 



Some years ago there were several bright arti- 

 cles in Gleanings, or some other of the bee jour- 

 nals, signed " B. Lunderer;" and I have been 

 wondering whether B. Lunderer were still alive. 

 May be Dr. Miller can tell us something about 

 it. Well, if he is alive I want to ask his permis- 

 sion to sign myself just now B. Lunderer, or,, to 

 be more exact, I guess it had better be Seedcorn 

 B. Lunderer; or may be we had better cut it 

 shiirt and say Blunderer, for that is just what I 

 am. I have been feeling guilty for some days 

 past to think that, with all my exhortations and 

 teachings, I have been making such blundering 

 work of planting our cornfields. We shall have 

 to go a little back in order to get in the whole 

 lesson that comes from my blundering. 



Two years ago, after listening to Prof. Holden, 

 and reading up in regard to seed corn, I selected 

 at husking-time about 200 cars of corn, strung 

 them on a wire, and hung them up in our cellar 

 basement near the steam-pipes. Then I told you 

 about how I took six kernels from each ear and 

 planted them in the greenhouse. The ears were 

 all so uniformly good that there were really none 

 to throw out. Well, I have told you about our 

 splendid corn crop of last season, that even Prof. 

 Holden, when he went through it, admired. There 

 was only one trouble with it. In consequence of 

 the prolonged wet weather in the spring of 1907 

 we could not get our corn in until far along in 

 June, and as a consequence a great deal of it was 

 not perfectly matured before frost. Well, Prof. 

 Williams, of our Ohio Experiment Station, gave 

 us a talk last fall, just before corn-husking time, 

 and admonished us to secure our ears for seed 

 corn from some hill that had four good stalks. 

 His argument was that we want to select our seed 

 from a plant that had such strong fertility and 

 vigor that it made a good ear in spite of the com- 

 petition of the three other stalks. For instance, 

 if you go to the corn-crib and select your nicest 

 and best-matured ears you will be more than like- 

 ly to get ears that come from a hill where there 

 was only one stalk. Any sort of corn-plant would 

 make a large nice ear where it had the whole hill 

 by itself; but we want to get our " pedigree 

 strain " from plants that have enough vitality to 

 stand crowding — not from one that has made a 

 good ear (or a couple of ears) because it has a bet- 

 ter environment. This matter has been much 

 talked about, ind I suppose you all know more 

 or less about it, and I hope your practice is ac- 

 cording to your knowledge. Let me digress a 

 little right here. 



Poultry-men are anxiously inquiring why so 

 many chickens die in the shell, and also why so 

 many eggs will not hatch at all. The answer 

 seems to come from a great number of experts, 

 that we want stronger fertility. The eggs must 

 be, as many as possible, fertile, of course; but we 

 want the very strongest fertility. We want to be 

 sure that both parents are in the best of health, 

 and lack nothing in the way of the best kind of 

 food, exercise, air, quarters, and every thing else. 

 When you get a strong vigorous vitality and fer- 



tility, then your plant, or chicken, will make its 

 way in spite of bad weather or uncongenial sur- 

 roundings. This thing applies not only to corn 

 but to the seed of every thing a farmer raises. 

 One of our experiment stations sorted out the 

 largest beans and planted them by themselves; 

 then they put side by side the smallest beans, and 

 they tried this with many kinds of garden seeds. 

 The large well-developed seed that gives the little 

 plant a good send-off might produce double the 

 crop of the small one. Inherited vigor and vi- 

 tality run all through the animal and vegetable 

 kingdom — " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall 

 he also reap. " 



Well, now, friends, I am first rate "on a talk," 

 am I not.? I have given you some grand articles 

 and some grand exhortations about saving your 

 seed corn; but after all I fear I have been like a 

 guidepost on a country road, which continually 

 points the xtv/j', but never goes anyavhere itself. 



Let me tell you what 1 did after listening to 

 Prof. William's grand lecture on selecting seed 

 corn. He said you had better make selections of 

 ears you want to use, before the corn is fully ma- 

 tured; and he thought it rather better to let the 

 ear remain on the stalk until husking-time. You 

 are aware, perhaps, that, when corn is a little late 

 in maturing, the juices and nutriment in the stalk 

 go into the ear after the corn is cut, especially if 

 it should be cut early to avoid frost. For this 

 reason he said he would tie a colored string or 

 tape to the stalk selected, or clip off the tassel 

 from all stalks where they would be saved for 

 seed. 



Well, we not only had trouble (a \ear ago) in 

 planting our corn on account of wet weather, but 

 the blackbirds and cut-worms destroyed so much 

 of it that we planted a second time and some of 

 it even a third time. On this account it was a 

 little difficult to select the best ears in a field ol 

 half a dozen acres. Before I went to Florida I 

 had a good man go through and clip the tassels 

 from enough stalks to give us plenty of seed. 

 Then I directed that, when these ears were husk- 

 ed, they should be placed in our slatted potato- 

 boxes and be hung up by four wires near the 

 steam-pipes in the basement. And this was done; 

 but instead of having half a dozen crates of seed 

 corn, when I returned home in April I found there 

 were only tivo crates, and these not quite full. 

 The explanation given was that some hands were 

 taken out of the factory to help do the husking 

 when the weather happened to be just right. 

 Well, these new comers, I am told, absolutely re- 

 fused to watch for the stalks with the tassel clip- 

 ped off. They said the best way and the proper 

 way to select corn was to pick it out of the crib, 

 regular old-farmer style. With all my blunders, 

 perhaps it does not become me to complain of 

 the stupidity or stubbornness of the average farm 

 help; but it really vexes me, when I take the trou- 

 ble to explain why I want seed corn saved up by 

 itself, to hear men of average sense and intelligence 

 say they "do not have time" for any such fuss- 

 ing. Prof. Holden tells us about addressing a 

 great audience somewhere in Southern Ohio. 

 After he had spent an hour or more in making 

 all of these things perfectly plain, a big pompous 

 man came up and said in substance, "Prof. Hol- 

 den, I have been very much interested in your 

 talk; in fact, I have greatly enjoyed it. But 1 



