54 



FOB BETTER CROPS 



means wasted land and wasted labor. Then, too, the weak and 

 sickly sprouts will betray many other ears which are really 

 scrubs and can be discarded, ears which yield 10, 20, and some- 

 times 30 bushels less per acre than others. 



It is certain that not less than 100,000 farmers tested every ear 

 of seed they planted this spring- in Iowa. Every farmer who 

 grows corn, whether he lives in the north or south, in the east 

 or west, should test each ear to be planted. It is proverbial that 

 a "runt pig" is always a "runt pig." In the struggle for exist- 

 ence he is at a disadvantage at every turn. He is crowded from 

 his comfortable sleeping place and rooted out of the feed trough. 

 So it is with the 800 or 900 weaklings from an ear. They are, in 

 reality, runts, scattered there and here throughout the field, and 

 robbed of plant food, moisture, and light, by their more vigorous 

 growing brothers. 



Plate No. 7 



Often they are barren; i. e., produce no ears, but these stalks 

 do produce tassels with millions of pollen grains which drift over 

 the field and fertilize the ears of the good stalks. In other words, 

 these barren stalks become the fathers of millions of kernels of 

 corn in the field, thus perpetuating their own weakness. Re- 

 member that you cannot injure the seed by testing it. You 

 cannot possibly lose. It costs nothing but a little time and 

 labor. This work can and should be done in the winter before 

 the spring work opens up. In this way none of the other farm 

 work is neglected. 



How to Make the Germination Box — One of the simplest 

 and best methods for testing each ear of corn is by the use of 

 what is known as the sawdust germination box. 



Make a box 3 inches deep and 30 x 30 inches in size; fill it 

 about half full with moist sawdust and tamp firmly with a brick. 

 Rule off a piece of good white cloth (sheeting) into squares 

 2\ X 2^ inches each way, checker board fashion, and number the 

 squares 1, 2, 3, etc. Place this cloth, which should be the size 



