INDIAN CORN. Ul 



of corn, mostly of the larger varieties of sweet corn. 

 Glucose, starch, alcohol, whisky and malt liquors are 

 also made from Indian corn. 



Formerly but very little use was made of the corn 

 stalks other than to allow the cattle to roam in the 

 fields after the corn was husked, and eat the ears which 

 were missed and a few of the leaves. To-day a 

 large part of the 51,000,000 tons of corn-stalks still go 

 to waste. Their use is increasing, however, either as 

 cured fodder or as ensilage. 



Structure. — Indian corn, or maize, known botanic- 

 ally as Zea mats, belongs to the same family as wheat, 

 oats, barley, timothy, etc., namely: the grass family. 

 It is distinguished from most of the other plants of 

 this family by its solid or pith-filled stems or stalks, by 

 having the ovaries or female part of the tlower on the 

 side of the stem, and by its larger growth. The tassel 

 bears the pollen or male part of the flower. The 

 ovaries are arranged in pairs on the cob which, upon 

 being fertilized by the pollen, develop into kernels. 

 These pairs of ovaries are fertilized with such certainty 

 that under normal conditions an odd number of rows 

 never result. There are always 8, 10, 12, 14, etc., 

 rows and never 9, 11, 13, 15, etc., rows. 



Corn, like wheat, is wind fertilized: that is, the 

 wind carries the pollen from the tassel to the silks 

 (pistils) of the ear, frequently to ears of different 

 stalks than that producing the pollen, so that the corn 

 is naturally freely cross-fertilized. The pollen falling 

 upon the silks, which is sometimes as much as a foot 

 long, must, it is believed, grow down through the silk 

 until it reaches the ovary before the ovary can develop 

 into a kernel; at least one pollen grain, it is believed, 



