QUESTIONS 103 



Size of Shank. A large, heavy shank (1) makes corn difficult to 

 husk ; (2) likely to go with a large, wet cob that cures out slowly. ' A 

 very small shank will break easily, allowing many ears to fall to the 

 ground. The shank should be from one-half to three-quarters the 

 size of the cob. Cut one-half point per ear. 



Practice Work in Scoring Corn. In learning to judge corn 

 it is best to confine attention at first to single characters, until the 

 ideal for each character has been firmly fixed in mind. The fol- 

 lowing method has been found very practical : 



Placing Single Ears. (1) With a ten-ear exhibit for practice, 

 pick out the ear that is best in " shape and proportion." Next pick 

 out the poorest, then arrange the 10 ears in order of merit when this 

 point only is considered. 



(2) Second, take the next point on the score card and arrange the 

 ears according to tips, and so on through all the points. 



(3) Pick the best ear when fancy points only are considered. 



(4) Pick the best ear when practical points only are considered. 



(5) Pick the best ear all points considered. 



(6) Repeat with other 10-ear exhibits. 



Scoring 10-ear Exhibits. When a 10-ear exhibit is to be scored, 

 it is the general custom to proceed by sorting the ears as each point 

 is taken up. Draw toward you those ears that will pass without a 

 cut; push from you a little the ears that are readily seen to need 

 the full cut. This gives three classes and enables one to quickly form 

 judgment as to a fair cut on the exhibit. 



Disqualified Exhibits. In practice it is the custom among judges 

 to entirely disqualify an exhibit that shows more than one ear with 

 dead germs or more than one ear showing mixture. An exhibitor is 

 allowed to remove a few grains near the middle of each ear for ex- 

 amination, but the judge is privileged to bar corn showing too many 



grains missing. 



QUESTIONS 



1. Define corn judging. 



2. Is it practical to have a fixed type for a corn variety? 



3. Name the two groups of characters in corn judging. 



4. Which do you think of greatest practical importance? 



5. How would you determine maturity? Soundness? 



6. What are fancy characters? 



7. Do they have a bearing on ability to yield ? 



8. Define a good shape of ear; butt; tip; kernel; germ; and color. 



