328 LUTHER BURBANK 



attention whatever being paid to the way they 

 fall — whether with roots down or up. 



A half -inch covering of dirt placed over the 

 sprouted grain, it was not unusual to find shoots 

 coming through the soil the next morning. 



And this early start would enable the plants 

 to grow marketable ears at least a week earlier 

 than they would have done had the seed been 

 planted in the ordinary way. The growth of the 

 plants could be further stimulated by placing a 

 small quantity of bone meal, or of any good 

 nitrogenous fertilizer containing a certain 

 amount of phosphorus, in the soil about the 

 roots. 



Preliminary to this method, I had made ex- 

 tremely careful field selections of the earliest 

 ripening ears for a number of seasons. 



Early Hybridizing Experiments 



My experiments of this early period were not 

 confined to methods of germinating and forced 

 cultivation by any means, but included also 

 hybridizing tests. 



Some interesting work was in crossing the 

 black Mexican corn, the common sweet corn, 

 and the New England yellow field corn. There 

 was, of course, no difficulty in effecting cross- 

 ing, but I found it very difficult to fix any good 



