150 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



killed, but, on testing it, every grain sprouted as thriftily as any 

 corn I ever saw. I believe that every farmer should each year 

 select a small amount of the very finest ears of corn for stock- 

 seed. Plant from them a small field, and from this select the 

 stock-seed for the coming year, and also the seed for the entire 

 crop. I would cut this corn up as green as would be safe, let 

 it partly cure in small shocks, and then husk, and select the 

 seed-corn, and smoke or cure by fire heat before cold weather. 

 The farmer who will adopt this rule, and stick to it, will not 

 only greatly improve his corn, but will avoid the annoyance and 

 loss occasioned by the failure of seed to grow. 



Let your seed-corn be saved as it may, I advise testing it a 

 month before planting time. It will be but little trouble, and 

 the satisfaction of knowing when you plant that there is no 

 possible danger of failure is worth ten times the trouble. In 

 the spring of 1883 thirty-five bushels of corn was planted in 

 my neighborhood which would not grow. This was all furnished 

 by one man ; and yet the agricultural papers had been sounding 

 the warning all winter that the farmers would have trouble with 

 their seed-corn, as but a very small per cent of the crop of 1882 

 would grow. This lot of corn, however, was of the growth of 

 1881, and, supposing that to be perfectly good, no one thought 

 of testing it. 



I am convinced that seed-corn grows better if gathered quite 

 green, and cured when it will shrink somewhat, than if allowed 

 to fully ripen on the stalk. I should have dismissed this sub- 

 ject of seed-corn with a paragraph were it not that I see so- 

 often that our farmers need " line upon line, and precept upon 

 precept," in this matter. 



Professor Blount, of Colorado, who originated the variety of 

 corn which bears his name, is excellent authority on the matter 

 of saving and improving seed-corn. He says : "All seed-corn 

 should be selected in the field, because there, and there only, is 

 it possible to obtain the seed true to name and possessed of the 

 desired characteristics. Only in the field can perfected ears and 

 perfected stalks be found together. Seed-corn should always be 

 picked from those stalks that bear the best ears, and usually 



