SS 'he  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
657 
$175  for  seed  corn.  In  addition  to  this 
seed  corn  which  he  had  available  for  the 
trade  he  produced  more  than  ninety  bush¬ 
els  of  feeding  corn  per  acre  which  was 
worth  at  least  00  cents  per  bushel. 
“Of  course  the  prices  mentioned  are 
very  high  but  they  lye  not  record  prices. 
The  highest  prices  I  recall  at  present 
were  paid  by  Johnson  County.  Ind..  farm¬ 
ers  at  Omaha  in  1005  and  1900.  Mr.  L. 
B.  Clove  paid  $150  for  a  single  ear  and 
$200  for  a  10-car  sample.  Of  course  these 
prices  were  entirely  out  of  reason,  and 
could  only  be  figured  for  their  advertis¬ 
ing  value.”  j.  c:  hackleman. 
General  Farm  Topics 
Getting  Ready  for  the  Corn  Crop 
One  of  the  most  important  things  in 
growing  the  maximum  crop  of  corn  is 
seed  of  strong  vitality,  of  a  high  yielding 
variety,  of  uniform-sized  ears,  and  that 
is  adapted  to  the  farm  on  which  it  is  to. 
be  grown.  The  seed  should  have  been 
selected  as  early  as  possible,  preferably 
from  the  standing  corn  just  before  cut¬ 
ting  time,  should  be  dried  so  as  to  reduce 
the  moisture  content  low  enough  so  that 
it  will  not  heat  when  piled  up  or  freeze 
when  cold  weather  comes,  for  these  are 
the  two  things  that  happen  to  seed  corn ; 
it  either  heats  or  freezes,  and  both  from 
the  same  cause,  too  much  moisture.  We 
aim  to  select  three  or  four  times  as  much 
seed  as  we  expect  to  use.  so  that  we  can 
go  over  it  in  the  Spring  and  reject  fill 
ears  that  are  objectionable,  retaining 
only  the  best.  This  selection  to  be  of  the 
most  value  must  be  done  by  some  one  who 
knows  what  a  good  ear  of  corn  is,  remem¬ 
bering  that  to  some  extent  like  produces 
like,  and  that  always  more  good  ears  will 
be  produced  from  a  good  seed  ear  than 
from  a  poor  one. 
While  each  corn  grower  may  have  his 
ideal  of  a  good  ear,  yet  there  are  certain 
characteristics  we  cannot  afford  to  over¬ 
look.  The  ears  should  he  fairly  cylin¬ 
drical  in  form,  rather  than  tapering; 
have  the  rows  running  as  straight  from 
end  to  end  as  possible  without  broken 
rows,  not  too  large  a  shank,  with  grains 
of  even  dent,  uniform  in  color  and  slight¬ 
ly  wedge-shaped  instead  of  being  too 
square  or  too  peg-shaped,  of  good  but  not 
extreme  length,  with  a  medium-sized 
rather  than  a  small  cob,  the  ear  of  a  size 
suited  to  the  locality,  in  which  it  is  to 
be  grown.  Having  made  our  selection, 
we  take  a  grain  out  of  each  of  100  ears 
and  put  in  a  box  of  soil  to  be  tested.  If 
all  grow  strong,  showing  perfect  germin¬ 
ation  and  vitality,  no  further  testing  is 
necessary,  and  if  the  corn  has  been  well 
selected  and  cared  for  this  condition  can 
be  expected.  If,  however,  any  of  the 
grains  fail  to  grow  then  the  testing  of 
individual  ears  is  the  only  safe  way.  and 
to  omit  it  means  certain  loss.  When 
shelling  the  seed,  shell  each  ear  separate¬ 
ly  before  throwing  it  into  the  measure, 
for  although  carefully  selected  and  tested 
you  may  find  something  objectionable  in 
some  ears  when  shelling,  and  these  can 
be  rejected.  Shell  off  the  butts  and  tips 
of  ears,  as  the  grains  from  these  parts 
are  irregular  in  size  and  shape,  and  no 
was  grown  by  H.  G.  Windsor  of  Boon- 
ville,  Missouri,  and  was  the  reserve  cham¬ 
pion  bushel  of  corn  at  the  State  Corn 
Show  at  Columbia  in  January,  The  rea¬ 
sons  for  such  a  price  for  this  seed  corn 
are  perhaps  not  apparent  until  one 
knows  the  parties  concerned  and  a  little 
of  the  history  of  the  corn.  First,  the  man 
who  paid  the  $125  is  a  very  wealthy 
banker  farmer  of  Carrollton,  who  grows 
a  great  acreage  of  corn  each  year  and  to 
whom  of  course  this  price  would  not  look 
prohibitive.  Second,  this  was  the  first 
bushel  of  corn  put  up  at  the  show  aud 
of  course  it.  was  intended  to  make  it  sell 
high  to  start  the  sale  on  a  high  plane. 
Third,  this  being  the  champion  bushel  of 
yellow  corn  at  the  State  show  in  January 
naturally  enhanced  it  and  materially  ad¬ 
vanced  its  price  at  the  sale. 
“I  think  that  neither  of  these  samples 
of  corn  was  purchased  so  unreasonably 
high  that  it  is  impossible  to  come  out 
even  on  them.  In  fact  Mr.  Windsor  paid 
a  fancy  price  for  bis  corn  last  year,  and 
figuring  his  corn  at.  seed  prices  be  gath¬ 
ered  enough  seed  last  Fall  to  be  able  to 
sell  about  10  bushels  per  acre  or  70 
bushels  of  seed  corn,  which  was  sold  at 
an  average  price  of  $2.50  per  bushel  or 
Sow  Sudan  Grass  Late 
Last  year  a  number  of  failures  were 
made  with  this  crop.  Poor  seed  has  been 
named  in  The  R.  N.-Y.  as  one  cause 
of  failure.  Perhaps  another  cause  Avas 
early  seeding.  Results  indicative  of  that 
wore  obtained  at.  the  New  Jersey  Exper¬ 
iment  .Station.  From  the  same  lot  of 
seed  two  seeding*  Avere  made;  oue  on 
May  10,  the  other  on  June  10,  The  early 
soAvn  Sudan  grass  seemed  to  be  checked 
at  the  start.  Aveeds  came  in.  and  by  the 
end  of  Summer  it  had  made  but  a  stunted 
growth  in  comparison  with  the  second 
seeding.  As  for  that  second  seeding 
(June  10),  “It  made  a  crop  that  will 
happily  surprise  you,”  as  C.  T.  (page 
243)  puts  it.  This  crop  was  cut  August 
“Her  house  is  beautifully  decorated 
throughout.”  .said  Mrs.  Twickembury, 
“but  the  best  thing  of  all  is  the  magnifi¬ 
cent  fiasco  on  the  ceiling  of  the  draAving- 
room.''-  Christian  Register. 
Quality  First 
Price,  $1090  Detroit 
A  car  that  merely  looks  well,  “steps” 
smartly,  and  rides  comfortably  on  boulevards, 
is  emphatically  not  for  the  rigorous  demands 
of  the  American  farmer. 
The  value  of  length  of  life  in  a  piece  of 
machinery  is  nowhere  more  thoroughly  un¬ 
derstood  and  more  keenly  sought,  than  on 
the  farm. 
Length  of  life  is  a  thing  of  scientific  cer¬ 
tainty  in  the  3400  r.  p.  m.  Chalmers.  Its  high 
engine-speed  is  in  part  responsible,  for  the 
higher  the  engine  speed,  the  less  the  side-thrust 
of  the  crankshaft,  and  the  side-thrust  means 
destructive  wear  and  tear  that  rips  an  engine 
to  pieces. 
Long  life  is  also  insured  by  the  big  margin 
of  reserve  between  your  normal  driving  speeds 
and  this  car’s  safe  maximum  engine-speed  of 
3400  revolutions  per  minute. 
3400  r.  p.m.  does  not  mean  that  the  engine 
turns  at  this  high  rate  at  all  times.  It  means 
that  it  can  attain  this  record  speed  without 
skipping  and  with  absolute  safety.  Normally, 
you  do  not  require  any  such  crankshaft  turn¬ 
ing.  At  10  miles  an  hour,  for  instance,  you 
High-priced  Seed  Corn 
We  found  the  folloAving  item  in  the 
Western  daily  papers : 
ONE  BUSHEL  OF  CORN,  $125. 
Prize  Missouri  Yellow  Dent  Brings  nigh 
Price  at  Carrollton  Seed  Auction. 
Montgomery,  Mo.,  Feb.  10, —  (Special) 
— One  bushel  of  corn,  containing  70  ears 
of  Reed’s  yellow  dent,  sold  for  $125  at 
the  Carrollton  seed  corn  auction.  It  Avas 
the  prize  bushel  and  was  raised  in  Coop¬ 
er  County.  Tin*  highest  price  paid  by 
regular  farmers  was  $25  for  thirty  ears 
raised  iu  Carroll  County. 
Such  prices  seemed  impossible  but  we 
sent  to  the  Missouri  Agricultural  College 
for  the  facts.  They  are  received  in  the 
folloAving  letter : 
“You  are  correctly  informed  regarding 
the  sale  price  of  the  bushel  of  seed  corn, 
which  sold  at  $125.  This  corn  was  sold 
at  Carrollton,  Missouri,  January  20, 
191G.  The  bushel  of  corn  iu  question 
