80 



ELEMENTS OF h ^RM PRACTICE 



touch and heavy, not light and chaffy. Loose or soft ker- 

 nels indicate immature ears, which must be avoided, as corn 

 from such ears is not likely to germinate and, if the kernels 

 do germinate, the plants are likely to be weak. The kernels 

 should be bright in color and free from mold or injury. 



Shape of Ear. — Ears should be uniform in shape and 

 size, and each ear should be as nearly the same size at tip 

 and butt as possible. The tips should be well filled out, 

 as this indicates hardiness and well matured corn. Large 

 butts should be avoided as they indicate coarseness and are 

 hard to dry out. There are, also, more irregular kernels 

 on these large butts than on properly formed butts. 



Size of Ear.^ — The size of ears will depend upon the 

 variety and the locality. But do not select too large ears, 

 as they will have a tendency to make the variety later, 

 which may result in considerable loss in unfavorable sea- 

 sons. Select the medium sized, well matured ears as nearly 

 uniform in size as possible. 



Kernels. — Ears with 

 kernels as nearly uniform 

 in type as possible should 

 be selected. There are 

 good ears of corn with 

 different types of kernels, 

 but for any one variety it 

 is important that the ker- 

 nels be uniform, as only 

 such kernels can be plant- 

 ed uniformly by machin- 

 ery. The most desirable 

 kernels are deep, indicat- 

 ing a large amount of corn 

 in proportion to cob, but 

 the point can be overdone, 

 as deep kerneled varieties 

 are usually late in ripening. 



Figure 33.— The ear on the left represents SpaCe betweCH KemelS. 



a good type to select for seed It has J^ Jg desirablc to have 



even, regular rows and kernels and a , , 



good proportion of corn to cob. The ear jUSt aS mUCh COm arOUnd 



Zit Ssimir °'"'°*' '" °''""'"' the cob as possible; con- 



