£A/Try HOJA 
PHOTO'ENeVfcoTtiJ 
Vol. LXIX. No. 4070 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 29, 1910 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
ABANDONED WATER POWERS. 
Ruin of Former Activity. 
We hear considerable about waste or barren land in 
the Eastern States. This land once produced good 
crops of grain, and was a live factor in supplying food 
for the people. Now much of this land is idle, possibly 
used for rough pasture, but of little use to the world. 
We must remember that along with this land other 
forms of industry have gone out of service. In New 
England, during the old days, the hill towns were full 
of fine water powers, at which small mills or factories 
were located. With the decline of farming in these 
sections came abandonment of these powers, and many 
of them are now approaching ruin. At Fig. 431 is 
shown such a power in a Connecticut town, and the 
following description of it is given: 
“You will see by the picture that the water goes 
under instead of over the 
dam. The fall is a ledge 
about 15 feet, with a dam 
of logs about four feet 
high, making a fall of 19 
feet. The cause of this 
leak and consequently the 
loss of power is neglect. 
It has been in one family 
since it was built. It was 
left by father to son; the 
last owner had no chil¬ 
dren. He got old and 
feeble, could not do 
much, and did not feel 
like hiring help. He died 
within a year, and the 
mills are left to his wife, 
an old lady. In a few 
years there will be noth¬ 
ing to tell that it was a 
mill site but the ledge 
There are within a ra¬ 
dius of 10 miles from 
where I am five dams 
where there have been 
mills in times gone by; 
one of them was used 10 
years ago, but it is down 
now. The cause of some 
of those going down is 
the falling off in grain 
growing and the steam 
sawmills that have left 
the country pretty free 
from timber. There are 
some fine places for water 
power in sections of the 
country, and no one 
sufficiently interested to consider using them.” Surely 
their usefulness is not wholly gone. j. e. h. 
It seems a shame that these fine water powers should 
he lost when there are so many uses to which electric 
power can be applied. With proper capital and fair 
i eighborly spirit such a power as is here pictured 
could be made to light or heat a dozen or more farm¬ 
houses, and turn the wheels of most ordinary ma¬ 
chines. While a bitter fight is being made to prevent 
corporations from stealing water privileges on the 
Pacific coast these old mill sites in the East are being 
abandoned. It is a shame that they should be per¬ 
mitted to go. 
SELECTION OF CORN FOR EXHIBITIONS. 
Definition of Seed and Show Corn. 
Is there a difference between seed and show corn, 
and if so in what characteristics do these differences 
exist, is a question which has recently been asked of 
the writer. In reply I wish to state that I believe sam¬ 
ples of corn presented for exhibition at corn exhibi¬ 
tions should be typical of the best seed to be used for 
planting that the exhibitor can pick from his crop. . The 
show sample, consisting of one, 10, 20, 80 or other 
definite number of ears, ■ presents, however, some fac¬ 
tors, as in the case of exhibits of animals, which may 
not be taken so iully into account, as in the selection 
of the seed crop as a whole. With our present knowl¬ 
edge of corn judging, some factors, such as uniformity 
of type, filling out of tips and butts of ears, regularity 
and uniform straightness of rows of kernels, the 
grooming and preparation of the ears, are bound to be 
of more importance in the award of premiums, in 
some cases at least, than is warranted by any definite 
knowledge of their correlation with high-yielding char¬ 
acteristics when used for seed. For instance, by care¬ 
fully trimming the butts of the ears, removing silks, 
chaff, particles of dirt, etc., the appearance of a sample 
can be greatly improved, without increasing one iota 
the seed value of the sample. Again it frequently hap¬ 
pens that birds, animals or insects may mar the ear 
slightly while the plant is standing in the field, thus 
destroying the exhibition value of the ear, which other¬ 
wise might be the best ear for seed purposes. An acci¬ 
dent of season, location or other cause, might prevent 
the perfect filling out of the tip or butt or other por¬ 
tion of the ear, greatly reducing the show value of the 
ear, but not its seed value. The ideal, however, to be 
worked for by exhibitor and judge, in the opinion of 
the writer, is that the sample awarded first premium for 
field corn when planted under field conditions, will 
yield the largest number of bushels of shelled corn per 
acre, if raised for grain; or the largest amount of ani¬ 
mal food per acre if raised for silage or feeding pur¬ 
poses. No doubt mistakes will occur in the placing of 
samples, due to our lack of exact knowledge of the 
title seed value of an ear of any variety of corn, but 
:t is only by selection, exhibition and testing of sam¬ 
ples that progress can be made in arriving at the true 
method of selecting -and judging samples. Naturally, 
our judging must be modified somewhat by variety. 
In the case of sweet varieties, earliness or time of 
ripening, sweetness, flavor, tenderness and other char¬ 
acters may. be taken into consideration. These charac¬ 
ters, as shown in seed samples of these varieties, can 
only be judged by men of great experience in the 
growing of these varieties. In pop corn, the popping 
\alue of the samples is of primary importance, a char¬ 
acter which can only be determined by actual test, 
which is frequently-impracticable at the time the sam¬ 
ples are judged, or the relative value of the different 
samples decided upon by a judge whose experience en¬ 
ables him to correlate the sample with its value for 
popping purposes. As a whole the best sample for ex¬ 
hibition is the best seed sample of the variety for plant¬ 
ing for the purpose for which the corn is grown, elim¬ 
inating accidentally in¬ 
jured ears, and carefully 
preparing the individual 
ears by removing all for¬ 
eign materials such as 
silks, dirt aud'protruding 
shanks. 
TIME TO SELECT 
SAMPLES. —The time 
for the selection of sam¬ 
ples will depend on cir¬ 
cumstances, and the writ¬ 
er does not believe that 
any general rule can be 
made in this regard to 
apply to all conditions. 
Theoretically the best 
time to make such selec¬ 
tions is while the plants 
are standing in the field. 
Some of our most suc¬ 
cessful exhibitors follow 
this method. On the other 
hand, some of the most 
successful corn breeders 
and exhibitors select their 
samples in the seed 
line from the crop as a 
whole. In the first case 
the argument is used, 
that by selecting the ears 
in the field, it is possible 
to eliminate all female 
parent stalks but those 
that are strong, upright, 
bear the ear at conven¬ 
ient height and select 
ears from only desirable 
stalks. The followers of 
the second method say that they are not concerned 
as to the character of the female parent stalk (except 
in the case of silage varieties), that we do not know 
the best stalk or plant to select anyhow, and that the 
mature ear is the important matter no matter how or 
where it was grown in the field. If the selection is 
made from the field, a much larger number of ears 
should be selected than needed for the exhibit in 
order to provide ample opportunity for a final selection 
of uniform desirable ears. In the field the select plants 
if not fully mature can be marked by a large conspicu¬ 
ous tag, or the stalks can be cut and stored in separate 
shocks to fully ripen. If the ears are mature, the ears 
can be husked out directly from the stalk and cured, 
preparatory to a final exhibition sample. 
METHODS OF CURING SAMPLES.— After 
husking, the ears should be cured in a dry place, open 
to a free circulation of air on dry good curing days, 
and protected on wet unfavorable days. The writer has 
found that a satisfactory method is to tie 10 or a dozen 
A CENTURY OLD WATER POWER NOW ABANDONED. Fig. 431. 
