Rural School Leaflet. 



971 



A deep, rough kernel requires a longer growing season than does a 

 shallow, smooth one. There is, theretore, a limit to the depth of the 

 kernel that can be grown in any locality. The shorter and cooler the grow- 

 ing season the shallower the kernel 

 that it is possible to produce. In 

 selecting seed, do not take an ear 

 with kernels so deep that they are 

 chaffy. Such an earwill not sprout 

 well,' giving a poor stand of corn, 

 and it will produce grain that will 

 not fully mature. Avoid, on the 

 one hand, a very shallow kernel, 

 and on the other a chaffy one. If 

 the cob can be twisted in the hands 

 or if the kernels are quite loose on 

 the cob the ear has not ripened 

 fully. 



4. Tip well filled out. It is desir- 

 able to have the kernels run well 

 to the tip of the ear. The extent 

 to which ears are filled out will de- 

 pend to some extent, on the season 

 and the soil as well as upon the in- 

 herited qualities of the plants, but 

 in order to be sure that you are not 

 selecting ears from plants with an 

 inherent tendency to produce poor 

 tips it is well to discard such ears, 

 and to take only ears that are at 

 least moderately well filled out (Fig. 

 63, F). 



5. Butt well rounded out. The 

 butt should be well filled with good 

 sized kernels (Fig. 63, E). The shank, which holds the ear on the stalk 

 should not be excessively large (Fig. 63, D), as such an ear dries out 

 slowly and is more apt to be injured by the frost than one with a 

 smaller shank. On the other hand a very small shank is apt to break 

 off during a heavy wind, and the ear is then lost (Fig. 63, C). 



6. Properly shaped kernels. The shape of the kernels should be taken 

 into consideration, and to facilitate the consideration of this character, 

 a, few kernels should be removed from the center of the ear, and their 

 shape and unifomiity examined. The kernels should not be square. 



Fig. 62. — A, Ear with shallow ker- 

 nels B, Ear with deep kernels 

 From Lyon and Montgomery's 

 ^'Examining and Grading Gains," 

 Ginn and Company, Publishers 



