102 



THE BOOK OF VEGETABLES 



in nitrogen for a sandy soil. Dress once with nitrate of 

 soda or liquid manure when the plants are up. 



Maturity is according to variety, 

 from fifty-five to ninety days. 



Pick the ears as they are fit. 



Succession. A late crop can be 

 had in a favorable season by plant- 

 ing an early variety about the mid- 

 dle of July. Plant for succession 

 every two weeks until then. 



Storage of corn is only of the ripe 

 ears, for seed. 



Diseases. Corn-smut is the worst 

 disease affecting corn, its dark masses 

 being very conspicuous; the plants 

 yield less, and if the fungous growth 

 attacks the ears, these are ruined. 

 Continuous spraying of the ground 

 and plants will control smut to some 

 extent, but is too expensive. The 

 best preventives are collecting and 



Plant of Sweet Corn. burning ^ smut as SOf)n as it shows? 



and avoiding all manure from cattle which have been 

 fed with smutted corn. Use only healthy seed. The 

 sorghum-head smut may be controlled by the same 

 means. Corn blight is destructive, and has not yet 

 been controlled by the known remedies. 



Corn pests are more than two hundred in number, 



Fig. 51. 



