76 Practical Farming 



close breeding. One can easily see that this is so by 

 observing a solitary plant of Indian corn that grows at a 

 distance from any other corn plant. You will find that 

 only a few grains will be formed on the cobs, because only 

 a little of the pollen fell direct on the stigmas of the pistils. 

 You will also see that a plot of yellow corn planted to the 

 windward of a plot of white corn will affect the white com, 

 and make scattered grains of yellow com by reason of the 

 wind-borne pollen. In this way corn will often mix a 

 long distance. All of our plants and crops make a great 

 abundance of pollen in order that there may be no lack 

 of seed-making. 



All this is Nature's process for the increase of plant 

 life. Man has devised many other methods for the in- 

 crease of plants. It is found that by crossing in various 

 ways of the pollen of one plant on the pistils of another 

 the plants grown from seed can be made to vary greatly. 

 Hence, in our fruit trees we seldom resort to the seed 

 except for the purpose of getting new varieties. We con- 

 tinue the identical plant by dividing it in various ways. 

 This can be done by making cuttings and rooting them 

 as we have shown, or the cutting may be inserted as a graft 

 or bud on another plant which already has a root, and 

 this serves to sustain the new part that is attached to it 

 and allowed to make the future tree. Or we may bend a 

 branch to the earth and cover it till rooted and then have 

 a new plant identical with that from which it came. Of 

 all these artificial methods of increasing plants we will 

 treat in detail in further lessons. Our farm crops are 

 grown from seeds, and the perfection of the seed is a 

 matter of great importance to the farmer. Every farmer, 



