58 FOR BETTER CROPS 



Ears 1, 4, 7, and 12 are only fair. 



Ears 2, 6, 9, and. 11 should be discarded. 



Is there anything more foolish than to g-uess that 800 or 900 

 kernels on ears like 2, 6, 11, etc., are all right, when we can find 

 out at practically no expense ? 



You say that your field was infected with cut worms, grubs, 

 etc. How much more need then of strong seed that you may 

 have something left for yourself after feeding the worms. You 

 say that the spring is cold and backward and that this accounts 

 for your poor stand of corn. All the more need then of strong 

 seed. Tens of thousands of farmers in Iowa this year have good 

 stands of corn, wiiile there are tens of thousands of their neigh- 

 bors with poor stands, and tens of thousands of others who are 

 replanting, which is always most discouraging and most disap- 

 pointing in results. 



You say that your ground is poor and foul; that the season 

 was too wet, or too dry, and the care of the crop bad. You 



The corn binder operating in heavy corn 



know as well as I do that strong, vigorous plants will stand 

 these unfavorable conditions better than poor, weak ones. If 

 your land is rich, well prepared, and the season good, how 

 absolutely foolish it is to go out to this field and plant it with 

 poor seed, much of which fails to grow or gives only weak stalks. 



The time is past for guessing that the 900 kernels on an ear 

 are strong. We must know before the year's labor is put upon 

 them. 



During the past seven years more than 10,000 fields of grow- 

 ing corn have been examined. In no year has the average 

 exceeded 72 per cent of a perfect stand. It has been as low as 

 64 per cent. The average has been 67 or 68 per cent of a stand. 

 In other words, the average corn grower spends three hours of 

 every day that he works in the corn field traveling over plowed 

 ground that produces nothing. 



