NOLAN] THE STORY OF A KERNEL OF CORN 309 



and in five days the kernels had germinated. The cloth was very 

 carefully unrolled so that none were misplaced, and the farmer 

 could see which ears showed that all the kernels were vigorous 

 growers. Of course any square which shows a single dead kernel, 

 or one that germinated weakly, was proof to the farmer that he 

 should not plant the ear numbered as this square. Our kernel of 

 the story happened to belong to an ear in which all six of its fel- 

 lows used in the tester grew vigorous shoots. 



After the seed was tested the tips and butts were shelled from 

 the ears selected, so that the kernels remaining for the planter 

 would be nearly alike and make a more even and regular drop in 

 the field. Thus our story kernel finally got into the farmer's 

 planter and was dropped with two of its fellows, in a warm, moist, 

 and mellow seed-bed, and covered over about two inches with a 

 rich, loamy soil. 



In the warm, moist, and porous seed-bed, our kernel began to 

 germinate in a very few days. While its little roots were getting 

 established in the soil and the shoot was breaking through to the 

 sunlight, the kernel was supplying the little plant with the food 

 necessary to give it a start in life. But soon the old kernel had 

 wasted away, it had given up its life to the young corn plant, and 

 the hull of the seed returned in decay to the soil to add its mite to 

 the food of the plant for which it had died. 



Our story must now concern itself with the young corn plant, 

 for our story kernel is now gone. The young com must now shift 

 for itself. It must get its food from the soil and from the air. It 

 must face the ravages of insects and disease, it must struggle with 

 weeds and endure the handicap of dry weather, perhaps. But it 

 will not be unaided in this struggle for Mr. Farmer is a wise and 

 helpful friend for our com plant. He has been making a seed- 

 bed and preparing the food for our corn plant for several years, 

 before he placed the kernel in the soil. The field had been well 

 drained. A good clover crop had been cut and left lying on the 

 ground, the previous June, and a second crop from which the 

 seed had been taken in September grew up to a rank growth by 

 November. Upon this clover in November the farmer had ap- 

 plied a ton of fine ground rock phosphate, and after discing the 

 land both ways the whole had been plowed down to a depth of 

 about seven inches, before the freezing days of December came. 

 Through the long winter months the rains and snows were being 



