308 NA TU RE-STUD Y RE VIEW 110:8— Nov., 1914 



row among its fellows, and its broad square shotdders filled all the 

 space it had on the ear. 



Mr. Farmer came into his seedhouse that morning and began 

 to select the best ears of com for the seed tester. Our kernel whose 

 story is here being told belonged in one of the good ears selected. 

 The rows were straight, the kernels fitted tightly together with no 

 wide spaces between the rows. The butts and tips were well filled 

 with uniformly large kernels. There were no mixed colors, and 



- , - - Fig. 2. Seven Species of Corn 



the cob was red, for our com is one of the yellow dents. The far- 

 mer seized the good ears in his hands one by one, and those that 

 were firm and well matured he selected for the final test. He 

 used the "rag doll" test, a cloth about one foot wide and three 

 feet long, marked off into two-inch squares, which are numbered 

 to correspond with the number of the ears tested. The cloth was 

 saturated with water before the kernels were placed. Six kernels 

 were taken from six different parts of the ear, and placed in one of 

 these squares, and so on until all the squares were filled. The 

 cloth with the kernels was carefully rolled up so that they remain- 

 ed snugly in place and then tied at each end. The "rag doll" was 

 then placed on end in a pail containing an inch or so of water so 

 that the whole kept moist. The tester was placed in a warm room 



