FROM GRAIN TO EAR. 87 



hybrid to the extent of acquiring that habit of twelve rows, 

 but it will not mix in color. 



President Chadbourne. Any one can see thai that is 

 the same law exactly as prevailed in the mixing of my pop- 

 corn and sweet corn. While it did not change the color, the 

 corn took on the character of the sweet corn, as the corn to 

 which the orentleman refers took on the character of the 

 twelve-rowed corn, without the power to alter the color. 



Mr. SiiEPARD. There was another point in the lecture to 

 which I wish to refer ; that is, the taking out of suckers. The 

 lecturer recommended the early cutting of stalks which were 

 not likely to produce ears. For a number of years I cut the 

 suckers out of my corn in a small field. Old people said, 

 " Your corn will not fill out." It would be supposed that 

 if you took those suckers from the ground the corn w^ould 

 fill out better ; I thought that was natural ; but I have had to 

 give up that idea. The fact is, as for as I have observed, 

 and I have observed several years, that where I have cut out 

 those suckers the corn has not tilled out. I have tried to 

 find a reason for this, because it would seem that the suckers 

 were drawing the fertility from the soil, and that if they 

 were removed the corn that remained in the hill would do 

 better, and there is only one way that I have been able to 

 account for the fact. The suckers come out later, they are 

 in blossom later than the top tassel, they are very close to 

 the silk, very close to the ears, and very heavily loaded with 

 pollen, having double the pollen, at least, that there is on 

 the tassel on top. Now I am inclined to think that the pollen 

 on those suckers supplies any deficiency of pollen which may 

 occur earlier, and therefore the tip end of the ear gets all the 

 pollen it wants. I don't know how far the thing has been 

 investigated. I have never read anything about it. 



Then in regard to the smut. The smut appears on the 

 tassel, as the speaker has said. I spoke of it last year at one 

 of our institutes, and no one had noticed it. I saved some 

 this year with smut on it to show, and I had the idea that 

 the smut was propagated from the tassel and with the pollen. 

 I think thiit is a ver}^ interesting })()int, and I think that the 

 advice of the speaker as to the method (jf preventing smut is 

 the best we have had ; and that is, that the seed corn 



