April 30, 1934 John and I cleaned maize and kafir corn. Mama and Mary sewed.
Instead of buying seed for maize and kafir corn,
Cornelius and son John cleaned their own from the previous year’s crop. They were not planting hybrids, so the seed
would be true to its strain. And the
seed companies had not yet dreamed up legal restrictions that prevented farmers
from doing this. They wanted the best
grain for seed so that it would sprout well, so they would pick out the small
and shriveled kernels, stones, and other trash.
They also separated out the chaff by throwing the seed in the air with a
scoop shovel to let the wind blow the chaff away. This would ensure that they would spread only
seed and not “plant” chaff or trash.
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