CORN 155 



caught and counted as they are dropped. Drop a pint of grain shelled 

 from the tips ; a pint shelled from the butts ; a pint shelled from 

 the middle of the ear. What is the record of the number of grains 

 dropped ? Why are the butt and tip grains not used for machine 

 planting ? W 7 hy is it wise to grade seed corn before planting ? How 

 may this be done ? 



5. An experiment in corn culture. Arrange to have one of the 

 pupils, or a farmer near the school, conduct the following tillage 

 experiment for the school : 



1. Have 4 plots of 4 rows each, 40 feet long. 



2. Plot No. i should not be cultivated. The weeds should be 

 allowed to grow throughout the year without being molested. 



3. Plot No. 2 should be cultivated shallow as often as it is neces- 

 sary to kill the weeds and to maintain a uniform mulch. 



4. Plot No. 3 should be cultivated deep, and close to the corn rows, 

 throughout the season. 



5. In plot No. 4 keep the weeds killed by scraping the surface, 

 but do not maintain any mulch. When matured, remove the corn from 

 the ends of the rows so as to reduce the length of the rows to 3 1 feet. 

 If the corn is check-rowed, the distance between the hills is 3 feet 

 6 inches. This will mean that each plot should be 4 rows wide and 

 9 hills long, and should contain 36 hills. This would be about one 

 one-hundredth of an acre. Gather the corn from each plot and weigh 

 from each plot separately. Multiply the result by 100 and divide by 

 70, and the answer will be the approximate number of bushels to the 

 acre. What conclusions can you make as results from this experiment ? 



REFERENCES 



HUNT, THOS. F. Cereals in America. Orange Judd Company. 



MONTGOMERY, E. G. The Corn Crops. The Macmillan Company. 



SARGENT, F. L. Corn Plants. Houghton Mifflin Company. 



How to Grow an Acre of Corn, Farmers' Bulletin jj>/, United States 

 Department of Agriculture. 



Corn Cultivation, Farmers' 1 Bulletin 414, United States Department of 

 Agriculture. 



Seed Corn, Farmers' Bulletin 413, United States Department of Agri- 

 culture. 



