1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1619 



corn-crib, or buy of some seed-grower, as he has been 

 doing- for years past? 



Now, this book would be cheap at a dollar. Why, 

 dear mel my honest conviction is, if I dared express 

 it. that it would be cheap at ten dollars for the man 

 who srrows a dozen acres of corn, and yet the publish- 

 ers have put an almost insig:nificant price on it. It 

 comes from the Simmons Publishing Co., Spring- 

 field, O. If I am correct it is not for sale except in 

 connection with their periodical. We can send you a 

 book, together with the Farm News and Gleanings, 

 for only $1.25. If you are already a subscriber to 

 Gleanings you can have the book and the Farm News 

 for a year, both for the small sum of 25 cents. We 

 ought to send out a thousand copies within a month 

 after this notice reaches you. 



The Farm News is a live, wideawake, up-to-date 

 home paper. It is now in its 26th year, and well 

 worth the 25 cents without this wonderful book 

 thrown in. 



We grow a little corn for our horses. I did not get 

 hold of the book in time to select my seed corn from 

 the held, so I shall have to do the next best thing — 

 pick it out of the granary. I presume ten ears of corn 

 will be all we need; but I am going to test a hundred 

 ears, and select the best ten for the seed we plant. 



By the way, the book does not mention it, but this 

 same scheme can be worked with sweet corn, popcorn, 

 and every other kind of corn; and I think Young 

 America will very soon find a way to make the same 

 principle, with proper variation, work with all the 

 grains and all the garden seeds and every thing else 

 we plant. Why, the farming world has been blindly 

 stumbling over a concealed gold-mine, right within 

 easy reach of every man, woman, and child who starts 

 out with a firm determination to plant better seeds 

 than we have been planting. Why, bless your dear 

 hearts, this thing is not confined to the vegetable 

 world. It can be put in practice with bees and chick- 

 ens, sheep, cattle, and horses, and no one now living 

 probably catches more than a glimpse of what may 

 be done in the years to come, right along this very line. 



Now, if you do not get this book and read it, and 

 give it to your children to read, and read it over and 

 over again, I shall feel ashamed of our family of peo- 

 ple who read Gleanings. Why, high-pressure gar- 

 dening is nowhere compared with what may be done 

 in the future with the help of this. Professor Holden 

 is so interesting in his teachings that I think every 

 member of your family will read the book or look at 

 the pictures. 



Fig. .59 — Space between the kernels next to the cob 

 objectionable. Ears 1 and 2 are the same length and 

 circumference. Ear No. 1 weighed i:-!.45 ounces. Ear 

 No. 2 weighed 10.12 ounces. Ear No. 1 shelled out 

 thirty-three per cent more corn than ear No 2. No. 3 

 is edge view of the kernels taken from ear No. 1. No. 4 

 is edge view of kernels from ear No. 2. Nos. 5 and 6 

 is a flat view of the kernels. Ear No. 2 should be dis- 

 carded for seed purposes. First, because it will shell 

 out a smaller proportion of corn to cob; second, be- 

 cause it is poorer in feeding value; tfdrd, because the 

 kernels give weaker stalks. 



Fig. 34— Examining the Germination Box to Discover the Worthless Ears. 



Hundreds of Iowa boys and girls tested the seed corn for the crop of this year. The young people in this 

 case got too anxious, and will have to wait a few days until the germination is further advanced and the sprouts 

 have grown two or three inches long. 



