26 
SEED-TIME AMD HABVEST. 
Selecting- Seed Corn. 
BY JOHN M. STAHL. 
Farmers are given a great deal of advice 
upon this subject; and although it partakes 
to a considerable degree of the nature of 
“line upon line and precept upon precept,” 
the importance of the subject justifies this 
repetition, while at this season the advice is 
timely. 
But these advisers of the farmer invariably 
make one grand mistake. They write as 
if the only object of selecting seed were to 
obtain that which will germinate. This is 
certainly an important matter. Those far¬ 
mers who have experienced the vexatious 
delay occasioned by planting seed which 
failed to germinate, need not be told that 
it is of the greatest importance to obtain 
seed which will grow. But this is not all. 
The farmer should have other objects in 
view when selecting seed. He should seek 
to obtain not only seed which will ger¬ 
minate, but seed which will improve his 
crops. He should look not only at the 
potency of the seed but at its quality as 
well. 
To obtain seed which will germinate it is 
almost essential to select it early in the fall, 
and it is equally necessary to select at this 
season corn for seed which will improve 
the crop. Thus the first quality to be sought 
for, and a very desirable one, is early ma¬ 
turity. Corn is a semi-tropical plant and in 
this latitude the seasons are too short for its 
fullest development and often the frost 
catches it before it is fully matured. We 
never hear of the season being too long for 
corn, but frequently we learn to our cost 
that they are too short for this, our most im¬ 
portant grain crop. It is therefore desirable 
that we have early maturing corn. Now 
it is a well established fact that a seed trans¬ 
mits its characteristics. “Like begets like. ” 
The grains of an ear which naturally ma¬ 
tures early will produce plants which will 
mature their ears earlier than plants from 
the grains of a later maturing ear grown in 
the same field. I am sure that my readers 
have noticed that some ears mature earlier 
than others. By selecting these year after 
year the maturity of the corn may be greatly 
hastened. But these ears can be selected 
only early in the fall, before the frosts have 
browned all ears alike. 
As the cob is waste matter, or nearly [so, 
it is desirable to reduce it to near the mini¬ 
mum. The less cob, also, the better the corn 
it is to feed to cattle, as often the animals 
are not able to crush a large cob. 
That corn which has the smallest cob and 
the deepest grains, in proportion to the size 
of the ear, is, other things being equal, the 
best corn. In some varieties of com the 
cob is always smaller and the grains deeper 
than in others; but always in the same 
variety grown in the same field there will 
be found some ears with smaller cobs and 
deeper grains than others. While keeping 
other desirable characteristics in view, the 
endeavor should be to select for seed those 
ears with small cob and deep grains. In this 
way the quality of the corn can be steadily 
improved year after year. 
Yet other points are to be considered. In 
every field there can be found ears which 
are incomplete. That is, the cobs are not 
completely coverpd by the grains. Occasion¬ 
ally the grains do not extend well to the 
butt and more often the tip of the cob is 
bare or perhaps covered with imperfectly 
IT WILL BE FOUND THAT THE 
CANADA ACliEC 
UNLEACHED AOllB.0 
est and^REST FERTILIZER 
and free from noxious weeds. Sold in Carload Lots 
Each car will contain from 13 to 16 tons. 1 moor ted bv 
MONROE, JUDSON & STROUP, 
9-lypd 28 Arcade Rlock, Oswego, N. Y» 
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J fci 
,0 >3 ^ •* 
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So. 
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Q • d 
£-2 
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OH 
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E* eg 
Grind your own Bone- 
Meal, Oyster Shells & Corn 
in the $5 ‘HAND MILL, (F. 
Wi son’s Patent.) 100 per cent 
more made in keeping poultry. 
™ Also p °wer Mills and Farm 
Feed Mills. Circulars and Testimonials sent on 
application. WILSON BROS., Easton, Pa. 
8—1 Mention Seed-Time and Harvest. 
