American Agriculturist, September 29,1923 
219 
“Putting Up” Next Year’s Seed Corn 
Two of the Main Points Are To u Put Up’’ Enough and Keep It Dry 
T HIS is a pretty old subject. Just for 
the fun of the thing I sat down one 
afternoon and looked back through 
some old volumes of American Agricul¬ 
turist to see how old the story of se¬ 
lecting seed corn is. I worked back¬ 
ward, so to speak, starting ten years 
ago. Then I jumped ten more. Then 
I jumped ten more. Thirty years ago 
the selection of seed corn was advo¬ 
cated. Yes, I went ’way back of that, 
sixty years, and more, and found in¬ 
formation on the selection of seed corn. 
It is very interesting to read those old, 
old articles about farm practice. 
In the September number of the 
American Agriculturist of 1844 is the 
following paragraph on selecting seed 
corn: 
“This month seed corn should be se¬ 
lected. It can only be well done in the 
field. It ought 
to be taken 
from those 
stalks which 
have the great¬ 
est number of 
large, round, 
well-filled ears. 
In this way the 
Baden and the 
Dutton corn 
have attained 
all their well- 
earned celeb¬ 
rity.” 
In the issue 
of 1856 1 found 
an article en- 
t. it led, “Save 
Seed Corn 
Carefully.” It 
reads as fol¬ 
lows: 
“In remark¬ 
ing upon the 
failure of the 
corn to come up 
last spring, we 
gave as a prin¬ 
cipal reason, 
that much of 
the corn was 
put up last fall 
in an imperfect¬ 
ly dried condi¬ 
tion. This fact 
should be re¬ 
membered now. 
Not only should 
extra care be 
taken to have 
all corn de¬ 
signed for planting next spring thor¬ 
oughly ripened and dried, but the best 
ears should be selected. Those ripen¬ 
ing first are quite likely to produce the 
earliest ripening crop when planted. 
“The largest ears should be taken, 
and these from the most prolific stalks. 
Those which are perfect, having the 
kernels well filled out at both ends, 
should in all cases be chosen. 
“These matters are quite too often 
overlooked. We have known many 
farmers who have expended five to ten 
dollars or more per acre in preparing 
and planting a piece of gl’ound, from 
which they have gathered scarcely half 
a crop, simply for want of a shilling’s 
worth of time in selecting and prepar¬ 
ing the best seed, and this, in a greater 
or less degree, is too much the case 
generally. It is like that other piece 
of bad economy practiced by multitudes, 
who send their children to the district 
school a year at an expense of thirty 
to fifty dollars for clothing, teachers, 
otc. ; and yet lose half the benefit to be 
derived, simply because they withhold 
one extra shilling for a suitable book. 
We urge every farmer to go over 
his cornfields himself, as soon as the 
£rop is ripened, and gather out the 
hind of ears we have indicated, and 
then either husk and store them away 
in a dry room, or go back to the old- 
fashioned plan of stripping down the 
husks, braiding them together so that 
the seed ears may be hung up in the 
attic or other safe, dry place.—[E d.]” 
In the same issue there is a contribu¬ 
tion from an Indiana farmer in which 
he tells of his method of selecting seed 
corn. He writes in part: “In refering to 
P. 001 ’. corn seed planted last spring, 
the Agriculturist stated that it prob¬ 
ably resulted from putting up the corn 
By FRED. W. OHM 
too damp last, fall. I think this must 
have been the difficulty. In gathering 
my corn as above described, I leave 
standing any thrifty stalks which con¬ 
tain two or more full-sized, plump, 
well-filled out ears. These remain in 
the field until perfectly ripe and dry, 
when the ears are plucked off and car¬ 
ried in baskets to a dry room over the 
granary, where they are left with the 
husks on until spring planting. Last 
spring my whole crop came up beauti¬ 
fully at the first planting, while many 
of my neighbors were under the neces¬ 
sity of planting the second time, and 
several of them came to me for what 
excess of seed I had to spare.” 
But to get back to “putting up seed 
The subject has been so thor¬ 
oughly broad¬ 
cast through 
the farm press 
and through 
farmers’ bulle¬ 
tins published 
by the Federal 
Government and 
our State col¬ 
leges of agri- 
c u Iture, that 
there is nothing 
really new. We 
have been thor¬ 
oughly drilled 
in such factors 
as size and 
shape of ear, 
position and 
height on the 
stalk, length of 
shank and true¬ 
ness to type and 
variety. 
Of course, 
there are new 
varieties. 0 I d 
varieties have 
been crossed 
and recrossed 
with a variety 
much superior 
to any of the 
originals. One 
particular ex¬ 
ample of this is 
the variety, 
Cornell 11, 
which was de¬ 
veloped from 
Pride of the 
North and sev¬ 
eral other varieties. It combines the 
qualities of both silage and grain 
varieties. 
But there are some practices, how¬ 
ever, although not new, that bear re¬ 
peating. Our oldest and most capable 
corn-growers would call them “chest¬ 
nuts.” That very fact makes them 
worth repeating for there are other 
farmers who would profit by adopting 
the methods of those old veterans, as¬ 
suming, of course, that they are grow¬ 
ing . a variety that is thoroughly 
acclimated. 
Therefore, I am going to skip over 
those old “chestnuts” I have just men¬ 
tioned and enumerate a few practices 
that I have noted are commonly used 
by the more expert corn-growers. The 
first, and outstanding, practice is that 
they always keep enough seed on hand, 
select enough, to maintain a two-years’ 
supply. A few years ago, our early 
season was very bad on germinating 
corn. The weather was cold and wet. 
Those fellows who were “close to the 
wind” did not have enough seed to re-, 
plant where germination had failed, 
had to go out and buy enough to re¬ 
plant. And usually they could not get 
their own variety. The old wiseacres 
had two years’ supply and had nothing 
to worry about. 
Another practice these fellows follow 
is to select their corn in the field, where 
they can take all factors into considera¬ 
tion. If seed corn is selected from the 
crib, it may be that the characteristics 
other than shape and size would be 
hgainst it as seed. For instance, that 
ear, although it looks good in the crib, 
may have had a shank a foot long, 
which is a nuisance when a fellow is 
harvesting it. Furthermore, it may 
have been ’way up on the stalk. Corn 
that bears its ears up in the air may 
come down in a heavy windstorm and 
stay down. 
Then there is the matter of storing 
seed corn. The crib is not the place 
to store seed corn. It is subject to 
dampness, freezing and thawing — de¬ 
cidedly detrimental to the germinating 
qualities of each kernel. Dampness is 
vastly more injurious than cold. Per¬ 
fectly dried seed corn will stand the 
lowest temperatures of our region 
without any serious effects. But let it 
get damp and then freeze, and the 
germ is almost sure to suffer. 
George Fish of Nassau County, Long 
Island, is what his neighbors call a 
considerable corn-grower. His picture 
was on the cover of American Agri¬ 
culturist of December 16, 1922. In 
that picture he was shown inspecting 
his seed corn, which he suspends in 
such a manner that no two ears came 
in contact with each other. They were 
stored in a dry. place and there’was a 
perfect circulation of air around each 
ear. 
Several years ago I was in charge 
of an institutional farm and I was 
delegated by the director of the insti¬ 
tution to locate a source of good seed 
corn on Long Island. I called upon 
a farmer who lives on the North Shore 
of the Island, who was well known' 
as an expert corn-grower. He had 
his seed stored in the upstairs part of 
the carriage house, an excellent, dry 
place to store corn. He had ordinary 
chicken wire suspended from the 
rafters and his seed corn was stuck 
in this. The mesh was the regular 
poultry wire mesh and large enough 
to hold an ear nicely. He used alter¬ 
nating meshes so the ears did not come 
in contact. This man’s corn was placed 
on my list of desirable sources.. 
I also visited a neighbor of his who 
had advertised that, he had a quantity 
of corn for sale. I went there and 
asked his price. He went over to the 
crib, heaped a bushel full to overflow¬ 
ing, and named his price. He didn’t 
get the business — at least for seed 
purposes. __ 
OBSERVATIONS IN A WHEAT 
FIELD 
J. N. GLOVER 
Early last June one of my boy 
helpers helped me pull the cockle out of 
a 17-acre field of wheat. Fifteen acres 
of it were seeded with Pennsylvania 
No. 44 wheat and two acres with Lan- 
caster-Fulcaster, which we had been 
growing for seven years with good 
yields. The No. 44 wheat I had bought 
two years ago, enough to seed two 
acres, furnished the seed for last fall’s 
seeding. This wheat I noticed had 
more cockle in than I like, as I prefer 
none. On the 15 acres we pulled, 210 
stalks of cockle in the No. 44 wheat, 
while on the two acres of my old seed 
wheat, we found only two cockle stalks. 
I think that a stalk of wheat would" 
better be growing instead of a cockle 
stalk, so try to pull it every year to 
get rid of it entirely, if possible. 
The fact that only two stalks of 
cockle were found on the two acres of 
my wheat which I had sown for seven 
years and.210 on the 15 acres of No. 44 
wheat which seed I had bought, shows 
that I had been well rid of cockle until 
buying No. 44 wheat. 
We found a few horse or narrow 
dock stalks which we pulled also and 
not one stalk of rye, cheat or garlic. The 
No. 44 wheat has a wide leaf this year, 
is taller and stiffer in the straw or 
stalk than my Lancaster-Fulcaster 
wheat, and has a little larger head, 
though No. 44 did not yield any more 
bushels per acre last year than Lan¬ 
caster did. A few more heads of 
smutted wheat were seen in the former 
than in the latter, but no rust. Some 
few stalks were down on account of the 
Hessian fly, but not many compared 
with reports I have heard of other 
fields. 
While the stand of wheat on this field, 
as on many .others, is not as good as 
most years, yet the heads are larger in 
size than usual, which may help to 
make a fair yield of grain in spite of 
a thinner stand of wheat stalks. 
* corn. 
The place to select the ears is in the field, 
where all factors may be taken into con¬ 
sideration 
POST YOOR FARM 
and KeepTrespassers Off 
We have printed on 
linen lined board trespass 
notices that comply in all 
respects to the new law 
of New York State. We 
unreservedly advise land 
owners to post their 
farms. We have a large 
supply of these notices 
and will send a baker’s 
dozen (thirteen) to any 
subscriber for 75 cents. 
Larger quantities at same 
rate. Address: 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
Dept. A 
461 4th Ave., New York City 
_ CATTLE BREEDERS 
GUERNSEYS 
Phrviro young cows and 
LIIOICC heifers for sale 
GORDON HALL 
OSCEOLA FARMS CRANFORD, N. J. 
HOLSTEIN BULLSTORlALE 
Sons of 
DUTCHLAND COLANTHA SIR 1NKA 
FISHKILL FARMS, Hopewell Junction, N. Y. 
HENRY MORGENTHAU. Jr., Owner 
HOLSTEINS and GUERNSEYS 
Fresh cows and springers, 100 head of the finest 
quality to select from. Address 
A. F. SAUNDERS, CORTLAND, N. Y. 
HOLSTEINS 
2 Car loads high-class grade springers. 50 Grade 
Heifers, 2 and 3 years old. 60 Head Registered 
Cattle. Write your wants. 
J, A. LEACH CORTLAND, N. Y. 
1 U f , i UUWItin butter records close 
up. 80 % of his get—females. 20 Dorset ewes and lambs 
JEN1SON LOCK BERLIN, NEW YORK 
SWINE BREEDERS 
142—PIGS FOR SALE-142 
Yorkshire and Chester White Crosses; Chester and 
Berkshire Cross Pigs, 6 to 7 weeks old. $4 each; 7 to 
8 weeks old. $4.50 each; 8 to 9 weeks. $5 each. Pure 
Chester White Pigs. 6 to 7 weeks old, $5.50 each. 
Pure Black Berkshires, 7 to 8 weeks old, $5.50 each. 
Pure Breed Boars, $7 each. I will ship any part of 
the above lots C.O. D.on approval. 1 will guarantee 
safe delivery as far as the Agriculturist goes. 
WALTER LUX, 388 Salem St., WOBURN, MASS. 
LARGE BERKSHIRES AT HIGHWOOD 
Grand champion breeding:. Largest herd In America. Free booklet. 
HARPENDING Box 10 DUNDEE, N.Y. 
Big Type Chester Whites 
Prepaid. GEO. F. GRIFFIE, R. 8, NEWVILLE, PA. 
Boars, Sows and Pigs 
for sale; good ones; low 
prices. Write me. G. S. HALL, FARM DALE, OHIO. 
f) I f, and big Type Chester Whites, grand champion 
w . ''*1 blood, bred for size and quality at farmer’s 
prices. Geo. B. Sinter & Sons, B.. 9. Carlisle, Pa. 
Big Type Polands 
1 nn °- c - CHESTER WHITE and DUROO DI/~> C 
A \J\J five and six weeks old. 3SR.SO each i luJ 
five and six weeks old. 
OAKS DAIRY FARM 
>3.50 each. 
WYALPSING, 
PA. 
RFfiNTFRFn 0 I f AND c ® est ek white pigs. 
1 LIALdA V. 1. l>. E. p. ROGERS, VTAYYILI.E, H. T. 
SHEEP BREEDERS 
Fairholme 
is offering an Advanced Registry 
Hampshire Ram. Also yearling 
and lamb rams. 
EARL D. BROWN ILION, N. Y„ R. No, 2 
BABY CHICKS 
Bar Rock Pullets, handsome. Heavy Laying Stock 
$1.60 each. Lots of 100 or more $1 35. Brown Leir 
horn Pullets $1 25. White Leghorn Pullets $ 1.25 each 
Inspection invited. Registered Airdale Pups $25 . 
HUMMER’S POULTRY FARM 
FRENCHTOWN, N. J., R. 1 
I ARflF STflflf 5ne Poultry, Turkeys,Geese, Ducks, Guineas, 
LrtlMjL 01ULIV. Bantams, Collies, Pigeons, Chicks, Stock' 
Eggs, low; catalog. PIONEER FARMS, Telford, Pennsylvania! 
