HOW THE GOLDEN GLOW "MADE GOOD"
How the Golden Glow "Made Good" "University" Corn is Pitted Against "Common" Corn by Wisconsin Farmers HERE ARE TWO PICTURES that tell an interesting story. The first one shows two ears of corn...
...Perhaps last year was exceptional...
...A boy in that county, who was entered in the contest, planted some of it...
...But the chances are all in favor of the Golden Glow...
...The "lowbrow" ear, the common variety, barely fills one glass...
...So it was decided to start a contest in real earnest...
...These experiments have only begun...
...Then the neighbors looked on and began to ask questions...
...And when these farmers progress still further with their COOPERATIVE experiments, they will have a really scientific knowledge of what the soil in their county will produce...
...and starting right means, among other things, selecting those seeds that thrive best and yield most in that climate and in that soil...
...One ear (the "Acclimated Golden Glow, Wisconsin No...
...The county board got interested and backed the experiments with an appropriation of $250 with which to buy seed...
...an ordinary product of an ordinary seed bought in the ordinary open market...
...You infer that a field of corn containing ears of the University variety is more valuable to a farmer than a field of the other kind...
...is a pure bred variety, developed by the experts at the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture...
...They will be continued...
...These two ears were raised in Clark County, Wisconsin...
...They are the result of cooperative experiments with pure bred corn, conducted under the auspices of the Parmer's Institute and Festival Association of Withee...
...In a sense, these farmers were putting the college professors on trial...
...If the University has developed a seed corn that produces such remarkable results," they asked "why not substitute it in our fields for the corn we have been using...
...The University corn was to be pitted against the corn bought from seed houses...
...Notice, too, that the kernels of the University corn are about twice as large as the kernels taken from the ear of common, seed-house corn...
...This year 76 bushels of Golden Glow (the University corn) will be distributed among 500 farmers in Clark County—you see there are more farmers taking part in the experiment—and new results will be obtained...
...Clark County has its agricultural future still ahead of it...
...You are right...
...Next year there may not be such fine results as those shown in the two pictures at the head of this story...
...Eleven varieties of seed corn were planted by these farmers...
...Scarcely more than 12 per cent...
...The second picture shows these same two ears after they have been shelled and the kernels placed in the graduated glasses...
...So with the cooperation of a few young men in the village of Withee—among them B. G. Packer, a young lawyer who told the story of these experiments at the Country Life Conference at Madison a few weeks ago—an association of farmers was formed and a series of experiments started...
...Only three "made good...
...He called it the Acclimated Golden Glow, Wisconsin No...
...Furthermore it is in a newly settled region...
...of the land in the county is cleared...
...Last year 127 farmers tried out 11 varieties of corn...
...Notice that the "highbrow" ear, the one with a pedigree, fills one glass full and in addition almost fills another glass of the same size...
...They will be getting maximum returns for their investment of labor and capital...
...It happened that in 1907, Professor Moore, the University's seed expert, had sent out to the Boy's Seed Growing Contests in the northern part of the state some seed which he had developed with an eye to the conditions to be found in Clark County...
...The first one shows two ears of corn standing beside two empty graduated glasses...
...Clark County is one of the northern counties of the Badger State where conditions are less favorable to the growing of the customary farm crops than in the southern part...
...Recognizing this, the farmers have decided to experiment with many varieties of seeds in order to find out which produce the best results...
...It is very important to start right...
...His results were so good that his father became interested...
...The other ear is a plebian...
...And all three were products of the University agronomy department...
...And they will undoubtedly find—as they have found thus far—that the seed developed by "Daddy" Moore at the College of Agriculture "makes good...
Vol. 3 • March 1911 • No. 12
