30 THE BOOK OF CORN 



somewhat with the season, being lower in a wet season 

 than in a dry, due probably to the removal of nitrogen 

 from the soil by the leaching action of heavy rains. 

 There is probably no doubt that those varieties 

 high in protein can be maintained high in protein 

 by thorough culture and the proper selection of seed. 

 By planting seed from varieties high in protein the 

 protein content of the resulting crop will be cor- 

 respondingly high. Fertilizers rich in protein will also 

 do much to maintain and even to increase the protein 

 content of corn. In experiments made by the Storrs 

 (Connecticut) experiment station, the average per- 

 centage of protein in the grain grown on plots where 

 liberal amounts of nitrogen were used as fertilizer was 

 about one per cent above that in the grain grown where 

 only mineral fertilizers were used. In the stover a 

 relatively greater increase was obtained where the 

 nitrogen was used, than in the seed. 



DENT VARIETIES IN THE EAST 



Only a comparatively few varieties of dent corn 

 are grown over any considerable range of territory. 

 Probably the best known variety is the Learning, 

 earlier described in this chapter. The season is found 

 to be long enough in New England for this variety, 

 as it will mature in about one hundred and twenty 

 days. It is quite generally grown in southern New 

 England, both for the grain and for silage. 



The Early Mastodon is a large-eared variety of 

 white dent corn requiring a little longer season than 

 the Learning. The ears are about nine inches in length 

 and two and five-tenths inches in diameter at the butt ; 

 kernels orange yellow with light yellow cap and rather 

 loose on the cob ; fourteen to eighteen rows ; season one 

 hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and thirty 

 days. The growth of stalks is somewhat heavier than 



