Seed corn

“ It may be that your father buys his seed corn from a seedsman. My experience is that seed corn bought in bulk contains a large number of poor grains. They probably shell the whole ear. The best farmers never plant grains from tips or butts of ears, since it costs just as much to plant and cultivate and harvest a runty corn stalk bearing a nubbin as it does a lusty, towering stalk with two good ears of corn on it. ”

“ If farmers expect a good crop of corn they should not get seed from a southern latitude. No Iowa farmer would buy seed corn now that grew in Kentucky, Kansas, or Missouri. The only seed corn on which our farmers rely implicitly is that which they have gathered before frost came and hung up near the fire to be thoroughly dried before it froze. ”

“ Soaking without rolling in plaster is good, if you plant in a wet time; but if in a dry time, it is absolutely injurious. Once in a while there occurs quite a general failure of seed-corn to come up. Farmers say that their corn looks as fair as ever, but does not vegetate well. When this is general, there is a remedy that every farmer can successfully apply. ”

“ One feature of corn-growing in 1883 should prove a lesson to the farmers of the country; that is, the general use of seed corn in the West, grown in lower latitudes. The planting of Nebraska seed in Minnesota and Kansas seed in Illinois, has demonstrated the folly of attempting to acclimatize the Southern maize in the more Northern districts. Much loss from frost would have been avoided had the seed been carefully selected from the best corn grown in the immediate neighborhood.
The wheat crop is estimated, as before, slightly in excess of 400,000,000 bushels. ”

“ A kernel with a black heart will not grow.
An ear of corn has always small grains toward the point of the cob, and large grains toward the butt of the ear. When I came to plant corn, I used only the kernels in the center of the cob for seed, rejecting both the small and the large grains of the two ends.
Seed corn was shelled from the cob with the thumb; we never threshed it with sticks. Sometimes we shelled an ear by rubbing it against another ear. ”

“ It will never do to carry seed corn from South to North, as it will not mature in a higher or colder climate than that from which it has been taken. Even half a degree of latitude sensibly affects the maturing of the blade, and renders it an uncertain crop in our high northern latitudes. To insure an extra yield of this valuable grain, the soil must be highly manured, deeply ploughed, thorough cultivated and hoed, and top-dressed with lime, house ashes, and plaster. ”

“ The field is then strewed over with the seed corn, and a strong man scratches or slightly turns over the soil to cover the seed, by means of a rude implement composed of two crooked sticks of hard wood fastened together and made sharp, which he forces into the ground with his breast. ”

“ He says, that although the seeds of wheat are rendered so lean and shrivelled by the exhausting power of the fungus that scarcely any flour fit for the manufacture of bread can be obtained by grinding them, these very seeds will, except perhaps in the very worst cases, answer the purposes of seed corn as well as the fairest and plumpest sample that can be obtained. ”

“ I have about 1,000 bushels of very choice selected yellow corn, which I have tested and know all will grow, which I will put into good sacks and ship by freight in not less than 5-bushel lots at $1 per bushel of 70 lbs., ears. It is very large yield and early maturing corn. This seed is well adapted to Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and the whole Northwest. ”

“ There has been much complaint of soft corn in this section on account of planting foreign seed last spring, but it is all solid since the late cold spell.
Those who planted seed of their own raising and got a stand have fair corn, while much of that which was raised from Kansas and Nebraska seed was caught by the frost when in the milk. ”

“ The ears are therefore not well filled with grains, and the general size of the ears do not seem in proportion to the large stalks. The white flint corn is planted here exclusively, and the same seed has been used from time immemorial, so that a change of the grain is perhaps now indicated for the improvement of the crop. Of course the corn ought to be planted separate from the cotton, and the rows being in closer proximity would secure a better result. ”

“ It has been the practice of botanists of all nations to consider the seeds of the grasses together with those of roses and pease, as if all could be described on the same principles, and with the same nomenclature of parts. But the grain of corn is a quite distinct thing from the seed of pease. In it, the husk and the seed envelope have become inextricably one. ”

“ But I fear that experiments on the vegetation of suspected seeds have been too commonly made in some snug sheltered corner of a fertile garden; or we put a little rich mould into a pot, and bring it into the house: the seeds sprout, are carefully watered, and nursed up, and a hasty, dangerous inference is deduced, that refuse corn may as safely be employed for seed as the plumpest and the soundest kernels: thus are chickens cheated of their victuals, and the crops of the whole country exposed to imminent danger through a mistaken and pitiful economy. ”

“ In the growing of corn the first matter for a boy or girl to consider is the selection of the seed. Corn should be selected carefully by the individual stalk; that is, choose ears from stalks bearing an ear or ears at, or a little below, the middle of the stalk.
The stalk itself should be thick and free from suckers or any evidence of disease. The ear should be cylindrical. The kernels should be deep setting, uniform and compact. Then the cob should not be too large. Look at some samples. See how some ears have too large a cob, others too small, while still others show a right amount of cob. ”

“ The Indians in their succotash taught us long ago to associate corn with beans, and they hit upon a dish not surpassed by modern invention. This delicious vegetable is as easily raised as its "hail-fellow well met," the bean. We have only to plant it at the same time in hills from three to four feet apart, and cover the seed two inches deep. I have used the powdery fertilizers and wood-ashes in the hill to great advantage, first mingling these ingredients well with the soil. We make it a point to have sweet-corn for the table from July 1 until the stalks are killed by frost in October. ”

“ The way to do is to advertise the seed corn in the regular way, giving as references such men as the postmaster, justice of the peace, banker, etc., as may be most convincing and convenient. We are as anxious as any one can be to see the people supplied with well ripened and well cared-for corn grown in the proper latitude, and we are equally anxious to guard them against imposition. ”

“ If you were to plant only one grain of corn and let it grow until it is ripe, and then plant the seeds again which grew on these few ears of corn, and thus continue to re-plant again and again, we are told by those who have calculated it very carefully, that in only five short years the amount of corn that could be grown as the result of the planting of the one single seed would be sufficient to plant a hill of corn, with three grains in every square yard of all the dry land on all the earth. ”

“ The cultivation of this article has within a few years been simplified to almost as great a degree as its manufacture. The seed is sown with a seed-barrow or drill, as early in the spring as the state of the ground will admit, in rows 31⁄2 feet apart. As soon as the corn is above ground, it is hoed, and soon after thinned, so as to leave the stalks two or three inches apart. It is only hoed in the row, in order to get out the weeds that are close to the plants, the remaining space being left for the harrow and cultivator, which are run so frequently as to keep down the weeds. ”

“ In all cases where it is practicable, the seeds should be taken from the largest and most perfect plants, or roots, as the case may be. By attending to this mode of selecting seed the product of the corn crop in particular will soon be found greatly augmented; a discovery, the honour of which is due to Mr. Cooper, of New Jersey. It is said that sprinkling a little gypsum on the silk of the ears of corn, will make them fill to the ends. Nipping off the blossoms of the potato crop, as fast as they appear, is found, by accurate experiment, to increase the growth of the roots about one sixth part. ”

“ No large vegetable is so generally grown throughout the country, the markets of the cities taking large quantities, and immense areas being grown for canning purposes. [Pg 174]
Seed that fails entirely is not often found, but when one has a good strain that produces early corn it is best to save some.
We generally have sweet corn to sell every day from about the middle of July until the first frost. To do this we plant every ten days from about the 20th of April to the 20th of June. Our early variety is the Peep-O'Day, which is planted about the same time as the early beans. ”

“ Few attempts have hitherto been made to cultivate any grain, except Indian corn, though the soil is thought to be in many places well adapted to wheat, barley, oats, &c. The maize cultivated in the Arkansa territory, and in the southern and western states, generally is the variety called the ground seed, having a long and compressed kernel, shrivelled at the end when fully ripe; and crops are not uncommon yielding from sixty to ninety bushels per acre. In all the uplands, the prevailing growth is oak. ”

“ Where the ear is partially blind, or where without any external appearance of injury to the straw, the corn is light and shrivelled, I should be much inclined to suspect that the mischief arose from an insufficient impregnation. ”

“ When a corn binder is used no more seed is lost from shattering than when an ordinary grain harvester is employed, unless the later is equipped with special pans and extensions, for the reason, primarily, that the portions of the plants which produce most of the seed extend above the gathering or divider boards and are not crushed. ”

“ The common white corn is said to be much more liable to injury from weevils than this hard variety; and the yellow or red corn is not found so marketable in the form of big hominy, which is dried and shipped in large quantities. A change of seed and improved culture would doubtless secure better results in the growth of corn.
Cotton has been grown in this region by a few persons for several years, with results that are conclusive as to the favorable yield, and yet systematic culture is requisite to test fully the quality and quantity that may be produced in these river lands. ”

“ The cultivation of Indian corn on newly cleared lands is very easy, and attended with but little labour; on old farms it requires more. The earth is just raised with a broad hoe, and three or four corns dropped in with a pumpkin-seed, in about every third or fourth hole, and in every alternate row; the seed are set several feet apart. The pumpkins and the corn grow very amicably together, the broad leaves of the former shading the young plants and preventing the too great evaporation of the moisture from the ground ”

“ There is presented to us a kernel of corn containing within itself the elements of vital action. So long as it is stored in a granary it is quiescent, but when planted in the soil it germinates, producing first the tender blade, then the tasseled tops, the silky ears, and, finally, rows of mature kernels upon the spike, inclosed by a sheathy covering. As soon as the seed is properly situated for development, an inward impulse urges onward the growth till the process is completed. ”

“ It thus came to be applied to the small hard seed of a plant, as still used in the words barley-corn and pepper-corn. In agriculture it is generally applied to the seed of the cereal plants. It is often locally understood to mean that kind of cereal which is the leading crop of the district ”

“ Many varieties of field corn are nearly as sweet as ordinary sweet corn, but grain varieties become starchy and tough within hours of harvest. Eaten promptly, "pig" corn is every bit as tasty as Jubilee. I've had the best dry-garden results with Northstine Dent (JSS) and Garland Flint (JSS) . Hookers Sweet Indian (TSC) has a weak root system.
Successfully Starting Cucurbits From Seed
With cucurbits, germination depends on high-enough soil temperature and not too much moisture. Squash are the most chill and moisture tolerant, melons the least. ”

“ The latter method is quite extensively followed in the more western of the corn states, such as Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska. The lister is a plow and planter combined, with moldboards at once turning the soil to the right and left, opening a furrow, dropping and covering the seed at the same time, economizing labor, time and expense. Corn is planted about two inches deep, and if in hills or rows generally three and one-half feet apart each way. A bushel of fifty-six pounds of seed suffices for planting nearly eight acres. For soiling, forage or ensiling it is planted more thickly. ”

“ The husbandman plants his seed of corn. The seed dies, the little plant lives, and becomes a great stalk, with corn in the milk, and then the full corn in the ear—it could not be otherwise; the golden stalk is the higher, and must be victorious. In the forest there grow a hundred kinds of jack-grapes, small, black and aciduous, and a thousand orange-trees are there, bitter, and with acid that sets the teeth on edge. ”