By a careful study of what experts have to say about the best corn for seed, and of the photographs of ears of prize corn, any young man of intelligence may learn to select from his father's field the best corn for seed. 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. [Illustration: Prize seed corn] Find out what a good ear of corn looks like. Make note of all the points to be encouraged. The habit of producing two good ears of corn is a good one to establish. Go through the field when the corn is ripe, before the huskers, and select the best ears, with all the points you have learned in mind. Take off the outer husks and draw the rest back, exposing the entire ear. When you have ten or a dozen ears braid the husks together, starting with three ears, adding one after another to the braid till all are secure. Fasten with strong twine and make a loop to hang the bunch by. Seed corn should hang for a few weeks in the open to cure, but should be taken inside before snow. You will have to use a good deal of ingenuity to keep chickens, rats, squirrels, and other thieves away from your seed corn. When spring comes the corn should be shelled, and every imperfect grain should be discarded. By selecting the seed in this way, demanding of each ear that it shall be perfect, you find the crop will improve, if cultivation is good, the soil well enriched, and the season normal. Every time a farmer boy uses his mind first in connection with any kind of work, the quality of work improves and his interest in his work increases. Selecting seed not only gives better corn but it helps make a better farmer. MAKING CIDER VINEGAR Every good apple year there are thousands of bushels of apples that go to waste. It doesn't pay to pick and put them into barrels when the price of barrels is more than you can get for the apples. The farmer is the last man to learn how to make use of what ordinarily goes to waste. Nature is lavish always, but wastes nothing. The farmer has learned to be lavish and wasteful too. They say that every part of the pig is utilized in the packing house except the squeal. That is the principle which the farmer will have to live by if he would succeed. What can be done with those wasting apples? Let the boys have them to make into pure cider vinegar. Every one knows how vinegar has been adulterated, and now the law-makers have put their veto on the practice and a penalty to match the crime. There is nothing very difficult about the physical part of vinegar making. Nature does the hard work but we can aid nature by providing the ideal conditions for making the product we want.