228 



The circumference of the ear should be at least 75 per cent of its length and 

 the depth of its grain at least half the diameter of its cob. Shelled, the 

 grain should occupy as much space as did the ear before being shelled. 

 Furthermore, the ear should be unmixed in grain and generally true to 

 variety and type characteristics. It must look like an aristocrat to the 

 eye trained to judge. These points are rather sketchy, but they should 

 give some sort of mental picture of the real thing and enable you to judge 

 whether or not the boys have picked the right one. Which is best, fellows? 



[Best ear displayed and points briefly enumerated.] 



This selection of seed-ears, to have been ideal, would have taken place 

 in the early fall. The next thing is to store it safely away from vermin and 

 extremes of heat and cold. Corn stored in corn-cribs usually retains some 

 moisture up to the time of the first sharp freezes. These, alternating with 

 early thaws, effectually kill the germ of the seed and render it useless for 

 perpetuation. The best way to store a small amount of seed corn is to 

 string it up and hang it away in some place protected from extremes of 

 temperature and the best way we know of stringing it up is the way Pearce 

 and Lord are now illustrating. 



[Brief demonstration of stringing corn by the double-string, inter- 

 lacing system.] 



Let's now imagine the winter past and the sun shining on the plowed 

 fields. It's almost corn-planting time, but before that there is just one 

 more little trick which may add dollars to the farmer's pocketbook and 

 subtract days of hot, tiresome replanting. 



^i^ This little afifair [indicating germination box in various stages of devel- 

 opment] can be knocked together on any farm in ten minutes. Simply 

 make a shallow pan-like box, fill it with clean sand or sawdust, divide it 

 into squares with strings and you are ready for your test planting. You 

 can see from the way the boys are now doing it, that it is no hard task. 

 Number the ears under test, then take from each ear six grains — two from 

 the tip, two from the middle and two from the butt. Plant them in the 

 moist compartment corresponding to their number. In a few days they 

 will sprout, — that is, some of them will. Discard all ears which, from the 

 six sample grains, do not throw out at least five strong shoots. Here 

 [indicating rag-doll tester] is an even simpler, but less satisfactory, arrange- 

 ment. By distributing these among the rural school children of the mid- 

 dle West it is claimed that millions of dollars have been added to the value 

 of the crop. It is also claimed, by way of impressing the necessity of 

 planting virile seed, that for every dead ear planted the farmer loses four 

 dollars. 



You can see from this young corn plant [taking one from the box 

 for examination] that the stems and the roots grow differently. These 

 red-ink divisions were put on at equal distances. Now, a few days later, 

 you can see that while those on the roots are at the same distance, the " 

 others have stretched apart with the growth of the stems. 



