CORN. 149 



I have for many years believed that we could add twenty per 

 cent to the yield of our corn by attention to the matter of selec- 

 tion of seed. I like the term used by Dr. Sturdevant, " Pedi- 

 gree seed-corn," and I believe that pedigree is just as valuable 

 in corn as in live stock. The cost of seed-corn is so small per 

 acre that no farmer should take any risk in the matter ; but the 

 fact is that, once in every three or four years, a very large per 

 cent of the corn must be replanted from the sole cause that the 

 seed was poor. I think nearly half the farmers in Ohio and 

 adjoining States bought seed-corn in the spring of 1883 at from 

 one to three dollars a bushel, when from one to ten hours' work 

 would have secured for them a full supply of which there would 

 have been no possible doubt. Many farmers learned, also, by 

 dear experience, that it is not safe to plant seed brought from a 

 different climate. Many car-loads of seed-corn were shipped 

 from Kansas and Nebraska, and some from Kentucky, and sold 

 through the Northern States, in the spring of 1883, and it 

 proved to be too late for these localities, and, under the most 

 favorable circumstances, the corn was soft and poor, and in 

 many cases it proved a total failure. 



Seed-corn should be gathered early, and thoroughly dried 

 before winter sets in. Many of our best farmers have adopted 

 the plan of putting their seed-corn in their smoke-houses, ar- 

 ranging the ears on slatted racks, so as to give a free circulation 

 of air, and then smoking it until thoroughly cured. I have tried 

 this, and would recommend it, as I never had corn come up 

 stronger, or of a better color. It is claimed that the corn not 

 only grows stronger, but is less liable to be damaged by worms, 

 as the smoke not only fertilizes the young germ, but makes it 

 distasteful to many insects. 



My own experience shows that we need not fear injuring 

 seed-corn by too much drying. In the fall of 1882 I put my 

 seed-corn on racks surrounding a stove-pipe, and some of the 

 oars were less than a foot from the pipe, where the temperature 

 all day was so high as to make it uncomfortable to the hand. 

 Toward spring it was suggested by some of the family that, 

 after months of such drying, the germ of that corn must be 



