Vegetable Growing for Market 



Farmers sow Indian Corn like 

 wheat in drills about 6 in. apart, 

 and use from 2 to 3 bushels of 

 seed to the acre. 



The Maize plant (fig. 476) is 

 monoecious, like the Cucumber, 

 Marrow, Melon, and Begonia, that 

 is to say, its male (staminate) and 

 female (pistillate) flowers are quite 

 distinct from each other, although 

 borne on the same plant. The 

 male flowers are borne in a panicle 

 at the top of the stems as shown in 

 the illustration, while the female 

 ones issue in the form of hardened 

 spikes or "cobs" from the axils of 

 the gracefully arching leaves lower 

 down the knotted stems, each cob 

 being furnished with a feathery 

 plume or tassel. A female spike 

 or cob will have from 500 to 1000 

 ovaries, each of which may de- 

 velop into a grain of " corn " in 

 due course. In Britain the plants 



attain a height of 3 to 5 ft. or more, being much shorter than in the 

 United States. 



16. KOHL-RABI 



This distinct-looking vegetable 

 (Brassica oleracea Caulo-rapa) is 

 about halfway between a Cabbage 

 and a Turnip. The stem is swollen 

 into a roundish turnip-like mass or 

 " bulb " which varies from 3 to 8 

 in. in diameter, the smaller size 

 being more valued for human use, 

 the larger ones for cattle. As a 

 market-garden crop it is not yet 

 extensively grown. There are two 

 principal varieties the white- 

 bulbed or Green Kohl-rabi, and 

 the Purple Kohl-rabi. According 

 to the Returns of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, there were 

 13,330 ac. of Kohl-rabi grown in 1911. Suffolk apparently is the largest 

 Kohl-rabi-growing county in the kingdom, with nearly 1300 ac. 



Fig. 476.- Indian Corn (Zea Mays) 



Fig. 477. Kohl-rabi 



