CHAPTER V. 



SEEDS. 



THE expense and labor of preparing and till- 

 ing soil is too great to allow you to plant 

 poor seed. The stock-breeder does not 

 take his sickliest, poorest specimens for breeding 

 purposes, but rather selects the best and most 

 nearly perfect specimens; you should be careful 

 to do the same with your plants. The farmer's 

 work is just as important as the stock-breeder's. 

 It should be the aim of each to improve the 

 strain and produce the best possible result. 

 Therefore, if you are growing corn, plant seed 

 only from the stalk that produced the most 

 and the best ears of corn. It is good to send 

 fine ears to market and get the best price for 

 them, but if you save only your scrubby ears 

 for seed, next year you will not have fine, 

 perfect ears of corn to send. So select of youi 

 very best for seed purposes, and if your best is 

 not good enough, then buy from a better grower 

 who has the best. Aim to produce an ideal ear 

 of corn. It can be done, and you might as well 

 do it. Only in this way will you find your corn 

 crop paying you for your time and labor. If 

 you carefully follow this every year, you will 

 find your acre annually producing more and 



SI 



