TOPPING AND STACKING. 



taking off of the ears of corn is to be fixed on by 

 such rule. The time for topping is, when you, 

 upon stripping the husks open a little at the tops 

 of the ears, find the grains of the corn to be 

 hard ; not hard enough to grind ; not dry ; but 

 hard enough to resist the strong pressure of the 

 thumb-nail. A second criterion is, all the farina 

 having completely quitted the tassel, and the 

 tassel being completely dead and dry. A third 

 is, the perfect deadness of the ends of the silk as 

 at d, d, d ; where, instead of the bright green 

 that appeared before, hanging gracefully down, 

 like the beard of an extraordinarily cunning and 

 blaspheming Jew, you will perceive it to be a 

 little contemptible bunch of withered-up and 

 brown-looking stuff. When all these signs ap- 

 pear, the top and the blades have performed their 

 office,x and the sooner they are taken away the 

 better ; because, after this, they do no good, and 

 only serve to retard the ripening of the ears by 

 the exclusion which they cause to the sun and the 

 wind. 



119. You will observe, that, at this time, the 

 husk which covers the ear is still green ; and, in- 

 deed, that the whole plant is still nearly green, 

 except the tassel and the silk. This state of the 

 plant will take place, earlier or later in the year, 

 according to the weather that you have had, and 

 according to the earliness or lateness of the plant- 



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