CORN 67 



board .ten or twelve inches wide and two feet long will make 

 the bottom of a very serviceable tester. Make a tray or 

 shallow box by using two-inch-wide boards for the sides and 

 ends. Fill this tray with sand, leveling it with a yardstick, 

 a lath, or any straight-edged piece of wood or metal. Lay 

 it off in squares by driving a row of carpet tacks into each 

 side and each end of the tray, placing these tacks an inch 

 and a half or two inches apart, and lacing strong twine back 

 and forth across the box from end to end and from side to 

 side. The twine will thus serve as a fence around each of 

 the squares, which will be an inch and a half to two inches 

 across, depending on the distance between the tacks, and will 

 provide space to test five kernels. 



This is the tester complete, except for a means of making 

 and keeping a record of each ear to be tested. Begin at the 

 right-hand corner of the box and number the long way of 

 the tester from 1 to the number representing the number of 

 squares in the long row. If the squares are two inches in 

 size and the tester is four feet long, the last number will be 

 24. Then begin at the corner numbered 1, and number the 

 short way of the tester with the letters of the alphabet. If 

 the box is a foot wide and the squares two inches in size, 

 there will be six squares in a short row, and they will be 

 numbered from A to F. The row of squares numbered 1 

 will cross the row marked A at the corner of the tester. 

 This corner is marked A and 1 ; in brief, it is Al. The 

 square in the opposite corner is F24. Any other square is 

 definitely located by letter and number. Thus provision is 

 made for testing 144 ears of corn. If the squares are made 



