One endeavoring to produce successful crops of corn must bear in mind that within each kernel is a partially developed corn plant differentiated into the part that grows into the stalk and that which develops into the roots. This partially developed plant necessarily endures the condition to which the seed ears are subjected during the winter. The best condition under which it maintains its vitality is that of dryness and an even temperature. It is not sufficient to make sure that the corn is once dried in the fall and then placed in a position where it will be subjected to damp atmosphere and extremes of temperature. If but a few bushels of seed are required, a very convenient method of dry ing it thoroughly is by means of twine and a well ventilated loft or shed in which to hang the strings of ears. About a dozen or twenty ears can be tied on one string, placing the ears several inches apart on the string so they will not touch. (Fig. 614.) If such strings can be hung in a place that will re main dry and at a comparatively uniform temper ature, they may be left in this position until plant ing time approaches. However, rather than subject such strings to the atmosphere of damp days and changes in temperature, it is better to take them down after the ears are thoroughly dry and place them in an attic or living-room of a dwelling or some building in which the temperature will remain rather constant and the atmosphere dry.
If it is necessary to dry large quantities of seed ears, gently sloping floors or shelves made of one and-one-half- or two-inch slats, with an inch and a half between the slats, can he constructed in a dry room heated by stoves so arranged that the warm air will ascend between the slats and escape by means of ventilators provided near the roof. The object of the sloping floors is to provide an easy means of moving all of the ears by withdraw ing a part of them from the lower ends of the floors, causing the others to roll down a little dis tance. Such movement enables the ears to dry on all sides. On these floors the seed ears are put only one or two ears deep.
Seed corn should never be placed in tight boxes or barrels until thoroughly dry or until the mois ture content is reduced to 10 per cent or less. When dried to this extent, seed can be tightly boxed with safety, provided the boxes are kept in a dry place. In order to guard against the weevil and the grain moth, it is well to place about a pound of naphtha or moth balls with every bushel of ears. Well-dried seed has been preserved in this way for four years without impairing its germi nation to any extent, while equally well-dried seed suspended in sacks in a loft has deterio rated greatly in that length of time.
At the present time, germination tests of each ear to be used as seed are being advocated very strongly by experiment stations and corn-breeders, and the prac tice is being followed by the most enter prising and successful corn-growers.
There can be no doubt that there is great benefit in testing each ear to be used as seed, provided the supply of seed did not mature properly or has not been preserved in the best way. By means of a large number of germinating boxes, the germinating power of individual ears can be tested without much expense of money or time. It should be remembered that a good-sized ear of corn will plant a tenth to an eighth of an acre, and each ear that is found to germinate feebly saves the planting of that much ground to seed that would be sure to return but a small yield.
It is a fact that the average corn grower plows, harrows, plants and cul tivates one-fourth to one-third of his corn acreage without receiving anything for his labor. This is because of the vacant hills, and hills that do not contain the number of stalks that the fertility of the soil demands. By not making sure of the perfect germination of every ear of corn used as seed, corn- growers not only are losing the use of one-fourth of their land, but are expending labor on the land without any returns.
Many have become so accustomed to seeing very poor stands that if three-fourths of a proper stand is obtained they are of t h e opinion that they have secured a good stand of stalks.
The testing of each indi vidual ear must not be taken as a remedy for the neglect of seed preser vation. N o amount o f seed - testing in the spring can make good seed of that which has been poorly p r e served. Al though there may be found in a lot of poorly preserved seed certain ears each kernel of which will grow, it should be remembered that the same conditions that have caused other ears of the lot to fail to germinate, have weakened the vitality of those that do germinate. They do not germinate so strongly nor produce so well as they would have done had they been better preserved. Some tests of well-preserved seed in comparison with that kept in cribs have shown that the one factor only, of preservation, is responsible for a difference in yield of sixteen or more bushels per acre. The important feature of these tests consists in the fact that the increased production of well preserved seed is not due to its better germination or a better stand of stalks in the field, but to the fact that the stalks are more vigorous. While a test of the germinating power of each individual ear is very profitable, with a supply of seed con taining some ears that do not germinate perfectly, it is more profitable to select and preserve the seed in such a way that it will contain no such ears. Of course, as a safeguard, it is advisable to test one hundred or more ears of seed selected and preserved in the best way possible, but as it is usually found that the seed so preserved germi nates perfectly or nearly so, it is often found use less to make the test of each ear of the lot.