IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



MODEKN COEN AND ITS ANCESTEY 



Mr. Burbank in the early day of his work as 

 a gardener devised a method of forcing sweet corn 

 in such a way as to bring it to market ten days 

 or so in advance of the ordinary time of matur- 

 ing. The method consisted of generating the seeds 

 in the greenhouse and then planting them after 

 they had formed roots and sprouts an inch or more 

 in length. No attention was paid to the way in 

 which the little plants fell into the drills or fur- 

 rows in which they were planted. They were 

 simply dropped in as kernels of corn would be 

 dropped, and covered with a thin layer of soil. 



Sometimes they continued to grow so rapidly 

 that they would be found pressing through the 

 soil the next morning; and this start caused the 

 plant to outstrip others that were grown from the 

 seed in the ordinary way. 



In recent years Mr. Burbank has experimented 

 very extensively with corn, in particular with the 

 primitive type known as teosinte, a giant form of 

 grass indigenous to Mexico. This plant bears a 

 head that is more like a head of wheat than like 

 an ear of corn. But by selective breeding and 

 hybridization Mr. Burbank has been able to pro- 

 duce all gradations between this primitive type 

 of corn and the familiar cultivated varieties. He 

 has thus virtually demonstrated that the culti- 

 vated corn is descended from teosinte. 



It is possible by selective breeding to increase 

 the size of the cornstalk, and to cause the ears to 



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