Vol. LXXVTII. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co., 
) 333 W. 30th St.. New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK, MARCH 8, 1919. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. June 26. 1879, at the Post 
Office at New York. N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
No. 4524. 
Seed Corn on Long Island 
The Development of a Great Business 
I N IIEAT NEEDED.—Long Island raises the 
best seed corn in New York State, and will, as 
time goes on, raise more. Just as the “Blessed Isle” 
cannot raise its own seed potatoes, hut. must get 
them from a cooler climate, so a large share of New 
York .State fails to reeeiye.enougjV sun heat in July 
and August to put the proper, kick in seed corn, and 
must get its seed from a better."corn climate. Years 
ago, when the shallow-kerneled, - 90-day flint corn 
was raised for grain, it was not impossible to get 
good seed corn almost anywhere: in the State, but 
'"'hen dairymen needed silage to supplement Alfalfa, 
it was found that this flint, corn was too small to 
use for silage corn. Hardy types of flint corn will 
particular have come to have an excellent reputa¬ 
tion for being adapted to thin, acid soils and matur¬ 
ing early enough for silage, while giving heavy 
yields of well-eared stalks. To meet this growing 
demand fur seed corn, which usually came after 
farmers had disposed of the best of their crop, and 
protect the good name of Long Island products, a 
seed corn association has been formed on Eastern 
Long Island which inspects the growing crop for 
purity, oversees its storage and finally markets the 
products through a central agency. The organiza¬ 
tion is still in its earlier stages, but has this year 
put on the market 25,000 bushels of the best quality 
of corn that has been grown on Long Island in many 
years. 
EFFECTS OF WEATHER CONDITIONS.—The 
bad season of 1917 left most of the State without 
farm bureaus in distributing the seed. An additional 
10.000 bushels on which the Association has an 
option has also been asked for. and an option on 
which given in case the demand seems sufficient. 
This will, without doubt, prevent all profiteering 
such as has been the rule in other seeds and will 
enable farmer to deal with farmer with the least 
possible outlay for middleman's profit. 
POTATOES FIRST CROP.—When Spring work 
begins on Long Island, which is usually about the 
third week in March, the first crop planted is pota¬ 
toes, and these must all be in the ground before the 
first of May, which is the deadline that none but 
millionaires dare to cross. This gets the potato 
crop out of the way in time to prepare the ground 
for corn, which can generally be accomplished with 
about one-quarter the labor that is required on the 
li,i I 0 ,"? ° f 1T eStem N fi c lork formers organized a battery of sprayers and came to help an unfortunate fellow farmer who had been 
omaUou - Uns man was unable to work, and all Spring operations were behind. So the neighbors turned out and sprayed the entire orchard. 
' ° r u 1,(11 c 8rcn lectures of our American soldiers fighting through the Argonne forest. Let this battery of buy and blight destroyers rank with the soldiers 
seldom yield more than five to 10 tons of silage per 
acre, while a larger and latw maturing dent corn 
will give from 12 to 16 tons, and make more milk 
per acre of crops. This large-growing corn will not 
often mature enough for seed corn and when it does 
seem to mature it shows a lower vitality that soon 
reduces the yield and makes it necessary to get fresh 
seed. 
ACCLIMATIZATION TO SOIL AND CLIMATE.— 
Seed corn from the corn belt was not adapted to 
our soils, and Southern corn was too late to make 
even roasting ears, which is perhaps the most 
immature stage at which it is profitable to put corn 
in the silo. This inability to raise seed or buy it 
readily from the corn-producing sections has led to a 
great deal of testing of different lots of corn, with 
the result that seed from Long Island has been' 
found to be the most uniformly reliable of any in 
the State. Certain local Long Island varieties in 
seed corn, while the northern half of the corn belt 
had to buy a part of its own supply. Only Long 
Island had seed corn because only the “Blessed Isle” 
of all parts of the State had received the necessary 
sun heat to mature the corn. Through the efforts 
of the County Farm Bureau of the State the need 
became known, stocks of sound corn were listed, an 
association formed and many carloads of priceless 
seed sold direct from farmer to farmer, saving the 
farmers $4 to $6 per bushel from the prices asked 
by seedsmen, and giving them better seed than they 
could have otherwise purchased. The season of 1918 
has been one of the best for corn ever known on 
Long Island, and the stock of fancy seed is, far 
greater than a year ago, while up-State is almost 
as greatly in need of good seed corn. The Long 
Island Seed Corn Association has sold their inspected 
stock of 24.000 bushels direct to the State Grange 
Exchange, which will co-operate with the various 
soils of upper New York State. Some farmers plant 
the last days of April, while there are many who 
have completed their planting by the 10th of May. 
This early planting is not risky as it would be in 
other soils, for our sands are so well drained that 
they are warm enough to give a prompt germination 
three weeks sooner than it can be secured in other 
localities. The general use of the weeder and har¬ 
row are reasons why corn culture on Long Island is 
so satisfactory, and, with the general practice of 
intensive cultivation, keeps the crop free from weeds 
until it is able to shade the ground and in a large 
measure look after its own welfare. Crop rotation 
is not a general practice on Long Island, but when 
there is a crop rotation, corn is generally planted 
on freshly plowed sod which has been manured with 
purchased stable manure. When no rotation is 
practiced it is planted on land which has been 
heavily manured and fertilized for cabbage. The 
