106 FARM AND SCHOOL PROBLEMS. 



PROBLEMS. 



1. If an ear of corn is 84.5 per cent, grain, and the moisture content 

 of the kernels is 12 per cent., what is the number of ounces of dry 

 matter in the kernels of an ear weighing 18 ounces? 



2. If an ideal ear of seed corn has 20 rows of 60 grains each, and 

 an allowance is made for one-third off for butts and tips, how many hills 

 of three grains each can be planted from this ear? 



3. How many ears of the above description will be required to plant 

 one acre of corn with three grains to the hill, rows three feet six inches 

 apart each way? 



4. How many ears, as in problem 2, will be required to plant a 

 twenty-acre field? 



5. If twenty of these ears in problem 4 have be-en injured by freez- 

 ing, bad ventilation, moisture, or by other reasons are injured so that the 

 embyro is dead, what will be the percentage of a perfect stand on this 

 twenty-acre field, if all the other ears produced a 95 per cent, stand? 



6. If each hill produces 3 ears, and the average weight of the ears 

 in this field is four-fifths of a pound, what will be the yield per acre? 



7. A field of corn contains a perfect stand, rows 42 inches apart, 3 

 stalks per hill, with an average production of one ear per stalk; the yield 

 is 75 bushels per acre; what is the average weight per ear? 



8. Allowing 12.25 square feet for each hill of corn in a field planted 

 with 3 grains per hill, there were 3,500 dead kernels ; this would be 

 equivalent to a loss of what part of the area of a five-acre field based on 

 tne assumption that each stalk missing has an average value of one-third 

 of a hill? 



From the facts demonstrated by the foregoing problems, we would 

 naturally conclude that a good stand is dependent upon proper selection 

 for germinating power and uniformity in size of kernels to be used in the 

 planter. 



We can, therefore, place reliable dependence upon the following rule : 

 That whenever all other conditions are favorable for a maximum crop of 

 corn the determining factor in the yield per acre will be the stand of corn. 



But we cannot attribute the low yield of corn as a rule to a de- 

 ficiency of stand alone. There are other causes that are likely to be vital 

 factors, varying according to conditions of soil fertility, germination, type 

 of seed, adaptability, climate, weather, cultivation and breeding. 



Seed Testing. 



Before the introduction of scientific methods of seed selec- 

 tion and seed testing, farmers as a rule waited until after corn 

 had been planted to examine it for the purpose of determining 

 whether it was germinating and growing satisfactorily. The 



