CHAPTER VI. 



SELECTION AND PREPARATION OF SEED 

 CORN FOR PLANTING 



The soil of the corn belt has a high productive power due very 

 largely, if not entirely, to its virgin fertility. The system of crop 

 rotation heretofore practiced, including the application of manure, lias 

 not in general added to the original potential supply of plant food. 

 The season is usually sufficiently long to mature the crop. More im- 

 proved methods of culture are adopted each year. Growers are recog- 

 nizing that weeds in corn are not conducive to high yields. The 

 ground is kept in better physical condition and abundant moisture is 

 conserved. Yet the average yield per acre for the heaviest corn- 

 producing States, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Nebraska was 

 respectively 34.9,^34.8, 28.1, 37.1 and 25.3 bushels for the past ten 

 years, 1905 to 1914 inclusive. 



Assume that all the corn in these States was planted with a 3 foot 

 6 inch planter, which would make 3,556 hills or 10,668 stalks to the 

 acre, providing three kernels grew in each hill. A yield of 38 bushels 

 means one 12-ounce ear in each hill. Therefore, the corn growers of 

 these States either have but one-third of a stand, or else two stalks 

 in each hill are barren. Upon these two points (poor stand and its 

 causes and the elimination of the unproductive stalk), the discussion 

 of the selection and care of seed corn will be based. 



BUYING FOREIGN SEED. By all means, do not omit picking 

 seed corn this fall with the idea that in the spring you will purchase 

 entirely new seed and start in the business right. Seed grown in a 

 different section of the corn belt, on dissimilar soil, is not sure the 

 first year or two under new environment. There is no corn so adpated 

 to a given locality as corn which has been successfully grown in that 

 locality for a period of years. 



The results of eight years of trial at County Experiment Stations 

 located on the county farms in different parts of the State 

 of Iowa are very sriking on the point of buying foreign 

 seed. There were 80 experiments in all. The corn from the "deal- 

 ers" (large seed companies who catalog their sales) was secured by 

 purchasing from them small quantities of seed through some farmer 

 in the vicinity of each county farm. The term "outside breeders" 

 refers to corn growers who make a specialty of good seed corn. This 

 was bought in small quantities. The quality was the same as that 



