New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 627 



make the hole and drop the required seed at one operation. Two 

 to three inches depth is proper for sweet corn. Large-growing 

 varieties, as Evergreen, should be sown in hills at least three and one- 

 half feet apart; small kinds, as Cory, three by three or even less. 

 Crowding gives no gain, resulting in taller plants of less yield. 

 Eight to twelve quarts of seed is required for one acre. Six kernels 

 should be sown in each hill, thinning to three or four plants at time 

 of first hoeing. 



Care of crop. — Cultivation must begin as soon as the young plants 

 show the rows and be continued at frequent intervals until the corn 

 leaves are liable to injury. Since corn makes rapid growth in the 

 driest, hottest months, it is imperative to keep up cultivation 

 sufficient to maintain a dust mulch. The first hoeing is done when 

 the plants are three or four inches tall and should be repeated often 

 enough to kill all weeds. Proper tillage will bring a crop to success- 

 ful maturity through all ordinary droughts. 



• Harvesting. — Sweet corn is ripe for table use when the kernels 

 first become plump and full of milk, about the time that the silk 

 has turned dark brown. Early varieties begin to ripen in early 

 July and there are plenty of succeeding kinds to carry the season 

 until fall frosts. The delightful sweetness soon deteriorates after 

 picking, the consumer in the city receiving an inferior article after 

 it has spent a few days in the market. Market gardeners generally 

 pick twice; the home gardener greatly extends this season by starting 

 with the earliest ears. The yield per acre depends upon the variety 

 and degree of culture practiced. The trade prefers a medium sized 

 ear. Retail trade is highly profitable and may be greatly strength- 

 ened by the use of attractive packages containing a definite number 

 of ears and bearing the name of the variety and that of the grower. 



SECURING GOOD SEED. 



Seed. — In order to maintain the good qualities of a variety it 

 is necessary to practice systematic selection. For instance, if 

 earliness is the object desired, the grower should go through his 

 field and select those plants bearing the first maturing ears and 

 distinguish such plants with colored string or cloth. Upon harvest- 

 ing, these plants are not touched and their ears are left to ripen on the 

 stalk. This seed should be separately cured, re-selected for ear 

 qualities, and sowed in a distinct plat the next season. Selection 

 is continued in this improved plat and after three or four years 

 the grower will find himself possessed of a superior strain. Pearl 

 and Surface give an admirable discussion of sweet corn breeding in 

 Bulletin 183 of the Maine Station. This selective work is of no 

 avail where two or more varieties of corn are grown within the 

 vicinity of one another as varieties have been known to mix at dis- 

 tances of more than a mile. 



