CULTIVATED CROPS 79 



Questions: 



1. Give two reasons why it is advisable for a farmer to select 

 his own seed corn from his own farm. 



2. Why is it better to have a variety of com that is a little -too 

 small rather than one that is too large? 



3. Give two ways by which a variety of corn may be made larger. 



4. To get com that will ripen earlier, how and when would you 

 select it in the field? How select it from a large number of husked ears? 

 Arithmetic: 



1. A plants 7 acres of corn with 1 bu. of seed and it yields 40 

 bus. per acre. How many bushels of com does he get? Extra good 

 seed would have increased the yield 20%. How many more bushels 

 of com would he have received had he used good seed? How much 

 would the increased yield be worth at 54c. per bushel? How much 

 would a bushel of extra good seed com have been worth to that farmer? 



2. There are 3,240 hills of com on an acre when planted 44 inches 

 apart each way. If a farmer gets 3 10-oz. ears from each hill, how 

 many bushels of corn will he produce? 



HOW TO SELECT SEED CORN 



Kind to Select. — If one is to get the best seed ears from 

 a field of corn, one must have well in mind what a really 

 good ear of corn looks like, and select only such ears. A 

 great advantage of selecting seed corn in the field over se- 

 lecting it from a load of husked corn is that the stalks may 

 be considered as well as the ears. No matter how good an 

 ear of corn may be, it should not be taken from a poor plant. 

 Usually good ears come from good plants, but there are 

 exceptions. It is well to select more seed corn than is 

 needed. Then another and more careful selection may be 

 made in the spring before planting. 



Time to Select Seed Com. — In order that seed corn 

 may be sure to keep over winter and still germinate readily 

 it must be taken from the husk and placed where it can dry 

 out before freezing weather. If one weighs an ear of freshly 

 husked ripe corn, then leaves it in a living room for a month 

 and weighs it again, it will be found that it has lost in weight. 

 The loss in weight is from the evaporation of moisture. 

 Moisture is detrimental to seed corn. Select and husk 

 seed corn before there is danger of a killing frost so that the 

 seed will not be injured by frost and so it will have time to 

 dry out before freezing weather. 



Condition. — The first thing to consider in an ear of 

 corn for seed is condition. It must be firm and solid to the 



