CORN growers' association. 6i 



plish something- he will never accomphsh it. Ambition must precede 

 the accomplishment. Cause must precede the effect. No cause, no 

 effect. 



The recent lecture of the President of the Missouri Corn Growers' 

 Association at Liberal is already bearing fruit and more work in that 

 line is now craved by the farmers. 



CORN POLLINATION. 



(H. S. Reed, Agricultural College, University of Missouri.) 



We do not usually think of the corn plant as having flowers, as 

 our ordinary flowering plants have; it is only when we find that it has 

 the same floral organs that we come to the conclusion that the corn 

 really belongs to the flowering plants. We know that our ordinary 

 Howers have, in the center of the Hower, one or more organs which are 

 somewhat rough or sticky on the upper end, which we know as pistils. 

 Surrounding these we have a circle of filaments which are yellow on the 

 ends and if we stick our finger into the flower, we withdraw it covered 

 with a yellow powder which is the pollen. We know that in order to 

 have fruit such a flower must be pollinated ; i. e. this yellow pollen from 

 the stamens must by some means be brought upon the end of the stigina, 

 and when it is brought there it brings about fertilization and the act of 

 transferring the pollen from the end of the stamens to the pistil is what 

 we know as pollination. 



In Howers of the apple or lily type, we have a dift"erent kind of 

 flower from that of corn, because in them we have the stamens and the 

 stigmas all in the same flower, while in corn they are separated. When 

 a bee alights on the apple or lily blossom and searches for honey he is 

 pretty sure to rub his head on the stamens and then rub some of the 

 pollen on the stigma and so pollination is brought about. As the bee 

 goes from one flower to another it carries some pollen on its body and 

 thus a flower may be pollinated by pollen from another flower. This 

 brings about cross pollination. If a flower is pollinated with its own 

 fiower, we say it is self pollinated. 



As long as one hundred and ten years ago it was noticed that many 

 flowers had adaptations to prevent being pollinated by their own pollen. 

 In a very curious old book which was published at that time, the author 

 said that Nature seemed to have intended that no flower should be 

 pollinated by its own pollen, but rather by the pollen from another 

 flower of the same species. 



