CULTIVATED CROPS 



count the matter of saving seed corn is likely to be neg- 

 lected, as farmers are very busy in the fall with other duties. 

 Were the saving of the price of seed the only advantage 

 gained in selecting seed corn on the home farm, one might 

 be justified in neglecting it; but this is by no means the case. 

 Adapted to Localities. — Corn in some respects is a ten- 

 der plant, very easily affected unfavorably by cold weather 



conditions or cold wet soil, and 

 favorably by warm weather and 

 warm soil. On this account corn 

 grown under one condition for 

 several years becomes adapted 

 to those conditions and is not 

 well suited to other conditions. 

 No locality is suited to produce 

 seed corn for any very large ter- 

 ritory. Corn that does well in the 

 north will grow and do well far- 

 ther south, but as a rule a larger 

 corn can be produced on most of 

 the well drained soils of the 

 south, and will yield more than 

 the comparatively small corn 

 grown farther north. Corn suited 

 to Indiana conditions will grow 

 if planted in northern Minnesota, 

 but in average years it will not 

 mature well, as the season is too 

 short. The same varied condi- 

 tions may be found on different 

 farms in the same locality. 

 Farms with a light warm soil, or 

 well-drained farms on which the 

 soil is kept highly productive 

 by good methods of cropping, 

 manuring, etc., can grow and 

 mature a larger variety of corn 

 than farms in the same neigh- 

 borhood with heavy, and poorly 

 drained soil or soils in poor condition. 



Figure 32. — Two varieties of Dent 

 Corn growing side by side and 

 given similar treatment. That 

 on tlie right is mature, as 

 shown by the droopinr: ears; 

 that on the left is still quite 

 green, as shown by the erect 

 ears. Both are Yellow Dent 

 Corn, but one later than the 

 other by being grown under 

 different conditions. 



