11 
operation until the desired depth is reached. 
The Digger is made by the Chieftain Hay 
Rake Co., of Canton, Ohio, and costs $3.00. 
JSreeding' Pure Seed Corn. 
A farmer in Minnesota, who was induced 
through the influence of the writer to try 
New England flint corn for comparison with 
the dent varieties usually grown at the w^st, 
writes us that a sample received from our oc¬ 
casional correspondent, J. E. Shaw, West 
Hampden, Maine, gave the best satisfaction 
•of any he has tried, and desires us to give 
him the name of the variety- We reply 
through the Farmer , that others at the West 
and elsewhere may understand the situarion. 
Mr. Shaw’s corn is called “Shaw corn” in 
the vicinity where it is grown, merely be¬ 
cause Mr. Shaw lias been a very careful 
farmer, and has, by crossing and selection 
through a long term of years, established a 
variety of corn that is well adapted to the 
locality; and as he always saves a surplus 
of seeds beyond his own wants, his neigh¬ 
bors have occasionally availed themselves 
of his neighborly kindness and have pur¬ 
chased seed from him when required, and 
have called the variety by his name to dis¬ 
tinguish it from other yellow flint corns in 
the neighborhood. There are many other 
careful farmers in New England and at the 
East, who have saved their own seed com 
for many years in succession, and have es¬ 
tablished varieties, or as the poultry men 
would say “strains,” which have come to 
have a character somewhat distinct from 
the “scrub” corn, (forgive the term) in the 
vicinity. The Shaw corn is not in market 
as a distinct variety, nor do we know it as 
specially worthy above other kinds of corn 
grown by careful farmers all through New 
England. If some seed dealer could see an 
opportunity to get up a little “boom” on it, 
and Mr. Shaw were the kind of man to 
second such an effort, probably our Western 
friends would hear of its wonderful merits, 
and be invited to try it at high prices. 
Every locality needs a variety of corn par¬ 
ticularly suited to the locality, and any 
farmer who will take the necessary pains, 
can in a few years have the best seed corn 
for him to raise, merely by going to his 
own cribor field. We have little doubt 
that our early New England eight-rowed 
flint corn, either the yellow or the white 
varieties, if introduced into the more north¬ 
ern of the western States, would be better 
adapted to the climate than the later large 
eared dent varieties so commonly grown in 
that section, although there are early vari¬ 
eties of dent corn that are well adapted to 
northern sections. Farmers should be much 
more particular than they usually are in 
selecting and improving the varieties of 
