The Busy Woman s Garden Book 



be scattered about the plants after they are up 

 and hoed into the soil; it should not be applied 

 in connection with manure as it has a tendency 

 to release the ammonia content of the manure, but 

 should be apphed independently. Droppings 

 from the poultry house may be used in the grow- 

 ing of the corn crop, placing about a teacupf ul in 

 a hill, but not in contact with the seed. Several 

 barrels of dry droppings should be saved during 

 the winter for just this extra fertilizing in the 

 kitchen garden.^ 



1 Corn should not be planted in single rows for this reason: — 

 when the corn blooms the pollen is carried from ear to ear, and 

 from plant to plant. If a single row is planted broadside to the 

 prevailing wind, the pollen is dissipated and the corn remains un- 

 fertilized and produces no ears. Three or more rows insures 

 against this loss of pollenization. If only a limited number of 

 hills are to be planted it will be better to plant them in blocks 

 rather than in one or two long rows. Corn that matures at dif- 

 ferent seasons should not be planted in parallel single rows as 

 the result would be the same as one single row — the corn not 

 blooming at the same time. Again, corn of two different sorts 

 should not be in adjoining, parallel rows, rather should each kind 

 be planted in blocks to avoid hybridizing. Where it is necessary 

 to give a long strip of land to the sweet corn it may be divided 

 into blocks, especially if the strip extends from north to south, 

 as the prevailing winds are quite uniformly from east or west 

 and there is little trouble with cross poUenizing from south to 

 north. 



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