70 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



human ear. The thought is intensified when it is remem- 

 bered that there are many cold days, during which very 

 little progress is made, while on the warm, not to say hot 

 ones, just following a fine rain, the growth is several times 

 above the average. The farmer, when almost sweltering on 

 a July or August day, can find consolation in the fact that 

 between sunrise and sunrise again upwards of twenty mil- 

 lions of dollars' worth of work will be done in the production 

 of our annual crop of corn. 



There are three principal stages in the growth of a maize- 

 plant : The first is the period of germination, when the 

 young plantlet is nourished in its early growth by the food 

 stored up as starch and oil within the seed-coats of the 

 mature grain. Following directly upon this is the vegeta- 

 tion portion of the life of the phmt, when it builds up its 

 stem, roots and leaves out of the crude materials gathered 

 from the soil and the air. Both of these stages are but pre- 

 paratory for the third and last — the formation of the grain, 

 or what may be styled the reproduction period. During the 

 . hot corn-growing days of midsummer the tassel, or upper 

 and finely branched end of the corn-stalk, lifts itself above 

 the broad, green loaves which had enveloped it as a scroll, 

 and soon the plant has reached its full stature. The branch- 

 ino" top continues to increase in size and beauty, while below 

 at each joint a small branch develops. These are the young 

 ears, one or more of which continues to grow and become the 

 busker's reward at the time of harvest. 



There are two kinds of flowers in the corn-plant. Those 

 in the tassel at the top of the stalk are staininate or male, 

 and their office is to produce the pollen or flower-dust that is 

 needed to fertilize the young grains and cause them to grow- 

 to maturity. These male flowers are produced in loose, 

 spreading clusters arranged upon the upper end of the stalk. 

 The pistillate or female flowers arc placed close together 

 upon the side branch of the stalk, and make up the ear. 

 Each young grain, closely covered by husks, has a long, 

 slender thread called the silk, that extends beyond the tips of 

 the husks and exposes its end to receive the flow^er-dust or 

 pollen grains that are showered down from the tassels. The 

 contents of the pollen grains find their way to the young 



