My Word

GROWN FOR A SPECIAL PURPOSE

A CORN CRIB PREPARED FOR A SPECIAL CORN

(I am sorry that I have no picture of the building)

I lived and grew up on the farm when we could plant anything that we desired, cultivate, harvest, and use in any way we wanted. But, in the early 50's we took on a new project. We had been planting hybrid corn and enjoying the higher yields and higher quality corn for a few years. Rather than save some planting seed from last years crop for planting, dad must buy hybrid seed. The county agent told dad that he could become a producer of hybrid seed. This was the beginning of, “grown for a special purpose,” on the Gibby farm.

Spring came and it is almost planting time. A new farm building was being prepared near the large barn. It was a special building for one designated purpose. It was built of new lumber and the walls were so constructed as to allow air to circulate through the corn for proper drying. It was soon completed and stood ready to be used for a special purpose.

My brothers and I were to learn something that we never before experienced at planting time. After dad selected a field that was separated far enough from the other fields to insure that no cross pollination would occur, the soil was prepared with care and planting began. We learned that some seed was called “female” and some “male.” Three rows of female seed were planted to each row of male seed. This was repeated all across the field. It was cultivated like any corn but when it was too tall for conventional cultivation, we removed the weeds with our hoes. An inspector from the seed corn company showed up one day and said, “I want to see your seed corn field.” Well I thought that was nice, he wants to see our field of corn. He looked it over good and said, “It looks good, I'll see you later.” He was gone, but, “I'll see you later?”

Corn all around had begun to tassel. Dad had looked over the field every day and we awoke one morning, finished our chores and sat down for breakfast. Dad said today we have to get the tassels out of the female corn. But we reminded him that they were not all out where we could get to them. “We will get the ones that we can see and get.” Off to the field and dad said “lets get em before the day gets too hot” but it was already hot and it became hotter before we finished that first day. There is no machine that could do this, it must be done by hand. My cousin Clarence who lived in Bryson City, and I laugh about those days when dad made a deal with his dad for him to visit with me for a part of the summer because dad sent us into the field to remove the tassels. That inspector which said “I'll see you later” showed up at the end of the first day of removing the tassels. This time he had a notebook in his hand and as he walked through the field, he was taking notes. When he finished, he handed dad a grade slip and explained what it meant, explaining that if a certain criteria wasn't meant the seed corn would not pass and all the work would be for naught. We were in the field removing the tassels when the rain was coming down, when the lightening and thunder was going on. Nothing took precedent over the work that must be done in this field of corn. It truly was special.

That “friendly” inspector came back, with his little notebook, every two days. Our field passed his scrutiny when finally every unwanted tassel was removed and he gave us a final report and said “well done.”

Harvest time came and our treasured special corn was reaped by hand and brought to that special prepared place, the new crib. After a few weeks we removed the husks and put it into new, clean burlap bags. We shelled the corn from the cobs with a hand turned corn sheller. The final step was grading the corn down to the last grain and bagging it by grade into whit bags from the seed corn company.

This is the only story that I have about the corn crib, so I want to make a few applications. Note, that I mentioned that this seed corn was special and must be raised in a special way. A dedicated Christian is like this corn. Grown in a field separated from outside influence. Just as a christian must choose an environment without bad influence. The purity of this corn is guarded by careful hands and is finally approve by an unbiased judge as to its worthiness to be harvested by the reaper, and carried to the prepared place (the special crib). Finally it is graded down to the last grain just as we as Christians will

each have our time before the judgment seat of Christ. I want to hear from Him, “Well done.”