EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT. 279 



A Test with Flinty Seed. 



The "Malamo" sweet corn has shown a tendency to develop 

 some starch in the grains at the expense of the tissue that abounds 

 in sugar. Such grains are easily seen while they are upon the 

 cob, as they wrinkle less than the others and the starch-bearing 

 interior shows through, giving a lighter appearance to the grains. 

 These kernels have been termed "flinty," in distinction from the 

 pure flints upon one side and the "sweets" upon the other. It is 

 not presumed that the flintiness in question is due to any immediate 

 influence of pollen from any flint corn that may chance to have 

 reached the young sweet ear. When this last event happens, so 

 far as the writer knows, the grain is a flint comparable with the 

 male parent in the accidental cross. 



The flintiness in question is usually only partial, and if a large 

 number of varieties of sweet corn are examined it will be found' 

 to range from an almost indistinguishable amount to that where 

 the grain is not easily separated from those that are unmistake- 

 ably pure flints. The great bulk of the grains showing flintiness 

 are, however, wrinkled and show one mass of no great size that 

 is starchy. An examination of the most truly sweet grains shows 

 that there is some starch present, and it is by an increase of this 

 that the flinty grain is produced. Whether there are any sweet 

 corn grains that have no starch in their interior remains to be 

 demonstrated, but it is assumed that any large amount is not a 

 desirable feature, as it allies such grains to the starchy sorts that 

 are not table corns in any true sense. 



A field test was made the present season concerning the power 

 flinty sweet corn has of reproducing its kind. A block of sixty 

 hills (Plot 9) of "Malamo" was planted with grains showing 

 flintiness, and at the same time, a similar block (Plot 8) was 

 planted with grains of the ordinary type. The season was so 

 unfavorable that the crop was small upon both blocks, and in this 

 regard the two plots w^ere served alike, but it is apparent that the 

 unfavorableness for a good crop may have a tendency to develop 

 the flintiness. From the crop of each plot twelve ears were 

 selected that showed the most of the flinthiess, and are given in 



