834 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



grow corn by the hundred acres; and you know, 

 of course, where I do business on a large scale 

 like that I can not stop to fuss with the things you 

 have been talking about." 



Our bright and genial friend Holden said that 

 that speech actually made him mad. " Can't stop 

 to fuss! indeed!" Well, now, listen to what 1 

 am going to tell you. When I got back from 

 Florida I was all taken up with chickens and the 

 chicken business. I seemed to have lost interest 

 and enthusiasm for the corn business. I advised 

 and directed a little about getting the ground 

 ready, and somehow got it into my head that 

 those two boxes of corn would plant our fields; 

 and as the seed corn kept all winter by the steam- 

 pipes grew so finely the year before, I did not 

 even take the trouble to test the ears. All at once 

 the weather turned favorable, and the men were 

 ready to plant the corn; but when it was half 

 planted I woke up enough to see that our supply 

 would plant only half the field. Then I told the 

 men they would have to select enough to finish 

 it, out of the corn-crib in the way farmers usually 

 do. But one or two of them said that, in con- 

 sideration of the whole crop being late, and much 

 of it not fully matured, they would hate to risk 

 that in the corn-crib without testing. Now, I 

 could just as well have selected good ears from 

 the crib, and tested them in the greenhouse, as to 

 spend my time in fussing with things of com- 

 paratively little importance. But the time to 

 plant was upon us, and it was not done. 



A few days before, when buying some baby- 

 chick food of our local seedsman I saw on the 

 counter a box of corn-plants, all thrifty, and ap- 

 parently every seed making a good strong plant. 

 I decided, rather than to risk the corn taken from 

 the crib, I would buy some corn to finish the 

 field. I did not take the time or trouble to ask 

 if he still had some seed like that which produced 

 the box of plants on the counter. I simply asked 

 for a bushel of his "best seed corn." I paid 

 him $2.00 for it. When I gave the men that bag 

 of seed corn my conscience began to trouble me 

 a little. I hastily took ten kernels out of the bag, 

 and then got ten more, such as we had planted 

 of our own, and put them in the greenhouse. 

 In about 40 hours every grain cured by the steam- 

 pipes started to grow, but not one grain from 

 that out of the bag. Ai the end of 60 hours 

 there was a good strong shoot from every kernel 

 of our own growing; but only half a dozen had 

 started at all, from the corn out of the bag. The 

 other four rotted. The corn out in the field did 

 just the same way. It was all late in starting, 

 and only about half of it grew at all. I reported 

 at the seedstore in order that they might know- 

 about it, and stop selling that seed to anybody 

 else. Their explanation was this: 



Their own tested corn was sold. This they 

 bought of a good reliable farmer. He assured 

 them that he and his neighbors had both planted 

 it, and that it was already up nicely when he of- 

 fered the seed for sale. Now, there are tw^o and 

 possibly three explanations to this. First, the 

 "reliable farmer" may have put six or eight grains 

 in a hill, so that if only half of the corn grew he 

 would still have a fair stand. I wonder how- 

 many farmers work in this way. We adjusted 

 our planters so as to have from three to five 

 grains in a hill. 



Another explanation may be that the com that 

 grew all right or very well at early planting time 

 would only half grow- at late planting time. I 

 am told this often happens with corn cured in the 

 ordinary way in the crib. 



Now, you would probably suppose that, when 

 I found only about half of the planting would 

 grow, I would have immediately selected ears from 

 the corn-crib, tested them in the greenhouse, and 

 had them ready to plant from tested ears only, 

 when we came to plant over again. Well, I did 

 not do it. I think I must have gotten a fit of be- 

 ing lazy or shiftless, for I was not particularly 

 busy. When I came to look at the stand of corn 

 I told the men to go right at it and plant some 

 more, not only at every missing hill but where 

 there was only one stalk; and I went and picked 

 out some of the best ears in the corn-crib for 

 planting over. One of my men, however, who 

 had had much more experience with seed corn 

 than I have, threw out about half of my selection; 

 and in order to test my ability to pick out good 

 ears of corn that would grow, I selected two eais 

 that I considered as good as any in the crib. 

 Then I took ten grains from each which I put in 

 the greenhouse in rows, the two rows being only 

 an inch apart. Now listen to what I am going 

 to tell you. Every kernel grew from one of those 

 two ears, and every kernel rotted from the other 

 one. Perhaps I am a poor hand at selecting seed 

 corn; but I am of the opinion there are other 

 bunglers besides myself. After my experiment I 

 took the ears and carried them to Mr. Weibly, 

 and said, "Mr. W., every grain of corn grows 

 from one of these ears, while every one rotted 

 from the other one. Now, can you tell which 

 ear is the good one and which the bad.-'" 



He told immediately, and explained it by say- 

 ing one ear showed slight traces of mold. Before 

 this, I showed both ears to Mrs. Root. Her 

 father used to be great on corn and saving seed 

 corn. She called the bad ear the better one of 

 the two. Now, you may think this is a trifling 

 matter; but suppose a farmer in picking out ears 

 from his corn-crib, to plant, makes such work of 

 it as I did. Suppose he gets hold of just one ear 

 that does not contain a grain that will germinate. 

 What is the consequence.^ Why, a great part of 

 his crop will be knocked out unless he replants 

 as we have been doing, and replanting is poor 

 business as a rule. If he does not replant, there 

 will be a lot of hills with only one stalk and pos- 

 sibly two, and sometimes a big lot without any 

 in at all; yet he goes through all the motions in 

 getting a crop, cultivates his ground both ways 

 with a patent cultivator, and does splendid work, 

 using a team that costs just now- perhaps four or 

 five hundred dollars; and yet I had not enough 

 energy or enthusiasm to give the men plenty of 

 i^ood seed that I kne-ic would grow, without any 

 guesswork about it. 



May be some of you wonder what this seed- 

 corn business has to do with the Home papers. 

 Well, friends, it is not only the corn crop and 

 the crop of chickens and horses and cattle, but it 

 is the crop of hoys and twirls that may be injured 

 or led to go astray by just such slipshod methods 

 and such procrastination as I have been telling 

 you about. I have a nice little greenhouse, 

 warnied by exhaust steam — the best place to test 

 seed corn in the world, and vet at three different 



