OCTOBER 15, 1914 



827 



our best tender varieties of sweet corn can 

 be cooked in fifteen minutes. Is not that a 

 short cut from producer to consumer? 



When I first begin eating green corn for 

 summer it is apt to disagree with me. Na- 

 ture has not yet become accustomed to the 

 new diet ; but let me suggest to elderly 

 ])eople that a very thorough chewing helps 

 very much in this respect; and with the 

 luscious green corn you can masticate it 

 more thoroughly by taking some good bread 

 and butter with it. 



Some of you may urge that it is a great 

 deal of work to take care of a garden ; but 

 I think most of you will find it pays big to 

 get out into the open air more or less every 

 day and use a hoe. There is a lot of time 

 and money devoted just now to gymnastics; 

 and this is all very well as far as it goes; 

 but I heartily believe gymiiastics in the 

 garden is just as good as any thing you 

 get from big doctors or froia correspon- 

 dence schools. T have taken entire care of 

 our garden this year, of a little over a 

 fjuarter of an acre. It is cultivated a few 

 times with a horse. All the ether work I 

 have done with a hoe ; and I have not only 

 supplied our table, but I have carried bas- 

 ketful after basketful of nice gieen corn to 

 our children's families round about me. 



Now, before closing this corn talk I wish 

 to speak again about the importance of 

 liaving good seed. Growing yuui own seed 

 instead of trusting to the merchants or the 

 corner grocer, or even the big seedsmen, is 

 another short cut between producer and 

 consumer. I have selected nict' specimens 

 of all of our sweet corn to take down to 

 our Florida home, where it will be planted 

 in November. We have not had any frost 

 in our Florida home that woaM hurt sweet 

 corn for the past two winters, and there- 

 fore I am going to try it agaifj. And, by 

 the way, I want to ask you to notice the 

 difference in germination betv\'cen the seed 

 you buy and the seed you g'rcw and save 

 yourself. 



Now, here is something more I wish to 

 say about seed corn. 



SEED CORN SELECTED PROM THE FIELDS, ETC. 



A year ago I Avent out into our cornfield 

 and carefully selected about four bushels 

 of ears — ears obtained from stalks where 

 there were four in a hill; oars that had 

 kernels clear down over the tipp ; ears with 

 regular rows of kernels ; ears that are hard 

 and firm before the rest; ears that came 

 from good strong stalks that did not get 

 blown over by the wind, etc. Well, we had 

 splendid germination, almost e: ery kernel 

 growing, and our whole croj), which is ;i 

 splendid one, had kernels clea;' aown to the 



tips like the ears I had selected. Let me 

 tell you again how it was kept. I had a 

 cylinder made of galvanized wire cloth — 

 meshes so small that no rat or :nouse could 

 gnaw through. This cylinder k something 

 like a tall barrel. It was placed on a box 

 near a steam-pipe in the basement that is 

 kept hot all winter. This lot of seed corn 

 pleased me so well that I thought of using 

 the two bushels of ears left for planting 

 another season. Then I wrote to our ex- 

 jieriment station near by. B<.low is what 

 Director Thorne says about it : 



Mr. A. I. Root: — I have yours of the 25th, and 

 would say that our Mr. Williams has made tests of 

 seed corn of different ages, and has found the two- 

 year-old seed to be apparently as good as the one- 

 year-old, and with no material deterioration until 

 the fourth year, after which it has fallen off rapidly 

 in germination. 



Chas. E. Thorne, Director 

 Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. 



Wooster, Ohio, Sept. 28. 



While writing Director Thorne on the 

 above I inclosed a clipping from my arti- 

 cle, " Beware of Pickpockets," in our issue 

 for September 1.3. Below is what he has 

 to say in regard to the matter of robbing 

 sick people : 



The clipping you send me describes an old trick, 

 and it is the meanest kind of stealing. The inten- 

 tion is io work on poor people who have no money 

 to spare ; but it seems that fraud can always keep 

 ahead. As soon as one trick is e.xposed, a new 

 one is concocted. 



BURBANK'S RAINBOW^ CORN, ETC. 



On page 784 of our last isuse I gave you 

 a picture and -description of Burbank's 

 Rainbow corn, supposing at tl:.; time it had 

 little or no other use than as an ornamental 

 plant ; but to-dav, Oct. 2, I find it equal in 

 quality to the very best sweet corn. The 

 kernels, when mature, are hard and round, 

 like popcorn, only a little larger ; but at the 

 roasting-ear stage it resemble^ and tastes 

 like the Early Bantam, but it seems to be 

 more sweet and nourishing, if any thing. 

 Of course, the ears are small; but as we 

 have several stalks containing four plump 

 little ears, it is not a bad investment for 

 table use. Just think of it ! beauty and 

 utility all together. It is lik-^ a beautiful 

 hen that lays eggs every day be ides. I do 

 not know at present whether this corn is 

 offered by any of the seedsmen. I hope it 

 is or will be. Meanwhile every paid-up 

 subscriber for one year or more may have 

 three grains on application. I have figured 

 up that I shall have from 10,000 to 15,000 

 kernels ; and if 5000 apply out of our 

 30,000 subscribers it may take my whole 

 crop. 



burbank's spineless CACTUS. 



Ever since it was heralded, perhaps ten 

 years ago, that Luther Burbank had done a 



