CORN 57 



light and air, and using up the food in the kernel. When 

 the roots are established in the soil and the leaves are unfolded 

 in the air, then the plant begins to feed upon the mineral 

 food elements in solution in the soil and the carbon dioxide 

 gas of the air, and to combine these food elements into com- 

 pounds to be assimilated into the growing roots, stems, leaves, 

 flowers, and grain during the summer. At the tip of the corn- 

 stalk the tassel containing millions of pollen spores develops, 

 and on the side of the stalk the ear develops, each kernel of 

 which sends out a long silk to the end of the husks, where 

 they appear in a beautiful yellow mass. The pollen must 

 fall upon the silk, one spore upon each silk, where it grows 

 a long tube reaching down the silk to the corn kernel at the 

 cob. The kernel is then fertilized, the young corn plant 

 begins to grow in the kernel, and continues to grow until the 

 corn is matured. The old corn plant then dies, and all that 

 is left alive is the germs or new corn plants embedded in 

 each kernel of the ripened ear of corn, ready to germinate 

 and continue the life history another year as described above. 



IV. THE CORN PLANT 



Corn A grass. All of the cereal grains except buckwheat 

 belong to the family of grasses. Corn is a very wonderful 

 grass. On the tenth of May, or even two weeks later, the 

 corn plant is snugly folded within the kernel. A week or two 

 after being planted, the young shoot pushes its tip out of the 

 ground and begins to be a real plant a growing thing with 



