COLLECTIONS CORNER:: The Evolution of the Corn Seed Bag

Bag One: DAAHA Original Collection

Since its beginning in 1936, the DeKalb seed bag has been evolving. Often overlooked, the seed bag is a combination of utility and art for each product.  Since corn is one of the widely grown crops in America and in the northern Illinois region, this Artifact of the Month will examine the changes in the corn seed bag.

Bag Two: Donation from Charles Lindhart

One of the first things to look at when determining the differences between the each corn seed bag is the design of the bag itself.  If one looks closely at bag one (shown above), the catch phrase in the center box states “The Corn the Farmers Like.”  This may not mean a lot to an average person; however, this phrase was used before the commonly known slogan “More farmers plant DEKALB than any other brand” as can be seen on bag two (shown on the left).  What this tells us is that the date on   bag one is around 1940-1943, while  the date on bag two is after 1944.

Bag Three: Donation from David Smith

Another factor with dating the bag is whether it is made from cloth or paper. Both bags one and two are made from cloth, whereas bag three, shown on the right, is the new paper material.  But why does this matter?  As seed technology improved, so did seed bag technology.  Newer seeds had chemical treatments that could leak into the cloth bags. Paper bags have four layers – paper, brown kraft paper, plastic, and brown kraft paper – each layer helps to control the chemical seed treatment so that it does not leak through. 

Bag Four: Donation from David Smith

The designs for the 2012 corn seed bags are very different.  You will see the color of bags three and  four  (shown to the left) are different as well as the general package design.  Some may think this is just because the designers did not want to have one type of design; however this is not the case.  Bag three is white and green which represents the YieldGard VT Triple corn seed product, whereas bag four is purple and represents the Genuity VT Triple Pro corn seed product.  Thus, the colors signify a different corn product for the farmers to use.