28 



THE NEXT GENERATION 



" Well," he said, " I simply took corn ancestors into account, 

 and my neighbor over there did n't pay any attention to them." 



" In what way ? " I asked. 



" The only possible way," came the answer. " I was care- 

 ful where the seed came from. Last year most of my corn 

 had one ear to the stalk, just 

 as his has now ; but I noticed 

 that some of my stalks had 

 two ears to the stalk. So 

 you see, that was my clue. 

 Those were the ones I saved 

 for seed corn." How he 

 smiled ! 



" Besides that," he went 

 on, " even when there were 

 two ears to the stalk, I never 

 kept seed that grew on weak 

 stalks. All that corn of 

 mine"- and he waved his 

 hand triumphantly toward 

 his ten acres -"came from 

 seed that grew on strong 

 stalks ; each one of those 

 stalks bore two ears apiece. 

 And look at it now. More 

 than half that corn has two 

 ears to the stalk. Some of 

 it carries three ears. Good investment, wasn't it ? " And he 

 smiled again. 



Had this farmer owned Luther Burbank's seed corn, he 

 might have done better yet, for Mr. Burbank has raised corn 

 that grows sixteen feet into the air and bears thirty-two ears 



AN EAR OF CORN IN ITS HUSK 



