AMERICA'S CHIEF CROP 323 



The one best plant of the lot was selected, 

 and from the three ears it bore I raised about 

 six hundred plants. 



About one-third of these hybrids of the second 

 generation resembled their parent plant in 

 having leaves striped in four colors. The rest 

 reverted to the form of their Japanese grand- 

 parent; a plant with variegated leaves that first 

 came from Japan, and which has been known in 

 this country for the past thirty years. 



From the best of these quadricolor plants I 

 took suckers, and developed in this way a good- 

 sized patch of corn from cuttings, perhaps the 

 first cornfield ever raised by this method. 

 All of these suckers being from an original 

 quadricolor plant, of course reproduced the 

 qualities of the parent form, just as we have 

 seen to be the rule with all other plants repro- 

 duced by root division or cutting, or by graft- 

 ing or budding. 



The method of suckering these plants was to 

 pull down the suckers from the old plants when 

 about one foot high. About two-thirds of the 

 foliage was cut back, leaving the stalk with 

 shortened leaves about two to three inches in 

 length. These were placed in pure sand in a 

 moist place away from the wind, but in the 

 bright sun, and after a week when they showed 



