I asked my wife, Ruth, what memories she had of the
first signs of spring. She grew up on a
farm, as I did. She told me that about
this time of the year, in mid-March, her dad would find a large glass jar, and
an old woolen sock. Then he located the
sack of corn seeds he had saved from the previous fall harvest and counted out
50 kernels.
He’d moisten the sock, and then place the kernels on
the sock, rolling the sock as he did this.
With the kernels all rolled up in the sock, he put the sock in the jar,
screwed tight the lid and put the jar in a warm place.
After three or four days, he’d open the jar, take
out the sock and count the seeds that didn’t germinate. He put the sock back together again , stuffed
it into the jar, and opened it again at seven days. And he once more counted the seeds that did
not germinate. What he learned was how
many seeds he should plant, now knowing what percentage of the seeds would
not grow.
He was using what was popularly known as a rag-doll
germinator. Go to https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ag182 if
you are interested in learning more about this old-fashioned, but still popular
way of doing a germination test for saved seeds.
With most farmers growing hybrid corn these days,
they don’t save seeds, as the seeds saved from hybrid kernels will not
replicate the parent crop. But the test
continues to work with the heritage, (not hybrid varieties) of most seeds,
garden seeds included.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Doing a rag-doll germination
seed test is a fun thing to do with the kids.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Workshops for 2016
Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library,
Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as
enrollment is limited.
Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door
County. Friday, August 12, 9-4. Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the
list.
.
UPCOMING EVENTS.
March
19: Banquet, Gathering of the Green, Davenport, IA. John Deere Tractors.
March
22: 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Writing
Wisconsin Waterways, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Lecture Hall, 227
State Street.
April
2, 1:30 Soldier’s Grove Library.
April
5, 6:30 Heritage Hill State Park, Green Bay. Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.
April
9, Fort Atkinson Library, 1-3:00 p.m. Whispers and Shadows.
April
14, 12:00 p.m. Wild Rose Hospital Auxiliary Luncheon speaker.
Stories from the Land.
April
17, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical
Society and Dodge County Geological Group, Watertown Senior
and Community Center, 514 South First Street, Watertown. Whispers and
Shadows.
April
19, 6:00 p.m. Union Grove Library.
May
26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI Whispers and Shadows.
June
7, Cambria Library.
June 11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose
Library. Telling Your Story
June
14.9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist Church,
Montello. Barns of Wisconsin.
August
9, 6:30 p.m.. Evening. Winnebago County Historical Society. Oshkosh Library. Ag. History
August
12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.
August
20, 10:30-11:30 am. Waupaca Annual Arts
on the Square.
Purchase
Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose,
Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
The
library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:
Emmy Winner, A
Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based
on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old
Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and
Shadows.)
Also
available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames
County. and Wisconsin
Agriculture: A History.
Contact
the library for prices and special package deals.
Patterson
Memorial Library
500 Division Street
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