128 AGRICULTURE 



Thus he reduces the yield of corn grain several bushels 

 per acre. The same amount of labor employed in making 

 hay as in " pulling fodder " would produce much more food 

 for stock. The practice of cutting and shocking the corn 

 plants just after most of the shucks have turned brownish 

 does not greatly reduce the yield. 



EXERCISE. Find ears or even kernels of sweet corn and popcorn, and 

 bring these, as well as dent-corn ears, to the class. Write in your note- 

 book a description of the shape, size, etc., of grains of each. Examine 

 a corn plant and locate the brace roots. Examine ten ears of corn and 

 record in your notebook the number of rows on each. Can you find 

 any ear with fifteen rows? Can you discover any law or rule about 

 the number of rows ? 



NOTE TO THE TEACHER. Helpful object lessons for this chapter 

 are : Dried or fresh corn tassels ; unhusked ears of corn with adhering 

 silks ; ears of sweet, pop, flint, and dent corn, and ears of pop or sweet 

 corn with a few dent grains. Corn kernels planted close to the glass 

 side of a box (Fig. 22 ) or near the glass inside of a tumbler permit a 

 study of corn roots. Keep the glass covered with black paper or 

 cloth except when making observations. Washing the soil from the 

 roots of a growing corn plant, by the use of a small stream of water 

 from an elevated barrel or bucket, will reveal the length and position 

 of the roots and thus enforce the lesson of shallow cultivation. 



