80 



distance which will be necessary to insure freedom from mixture will 

 vary with the intervening country and with the direction of the pre- 

 vailing winds during the time when the corn plant is in flower; but 

 to insure even comparative freedom from crossing, a separation of a 

 number of hundred yards at least is essential. The statement has 

 been made that an embryonic ear of corn may be found above each 

 of several of the joints of the corn plant. The question will naturally 

 arise, Why do not each of these develop into a perfect ear? Dr. E. 

 Louis Sturtevant, as a result of observations and experiments, believed 

 that, by root pruning just before the period when the corn plant comes 

 into flower, he could cause the development of most of these embryo 

 ears ; and he certainly obtained some remarkable results by heavy root 

 pruning from plants standing in excessively rich soil. Nothing of any 

 great practical importance, however, has followed as a result of Sturte- 

 vant 's work in this particular direction; and, indeed, it may be doubted 

 whether in the case of our field corns at least it is desirable that each 

 plant shall as a rule bear more than one ear. If the weight of the 

 grain of a single good ear of corn is taken, and this be multiplied by 

 the number of corn plants ordinarily standing in a well-stocked field, 

 it will be found that a single good ear to a plant will give an enormous 

 yield, varying according to the size of the ears from 125 to 200 or more 

 bushels of shelled grain. Such a yield as this is probably as great as 

 it is wise, with our present knowledge at least, to aim for; and if it 

 can be obtained by the cultivation of such a variety of corn or by 

 cultivation in such a manner as to insure the production of an average 

 of one good ear to each plant, the results must be eminently satisfac- 

 tory, — more so than if an equal yield be obtained through the culti- 

 vation of a variety producing plural but smaller ears. 



Agricultural Classification and Varieties. 



The recognized varieties of Indian corn are as follows: Z. indurata, 

 flint varieties ; Z. everta, pop corns ; Z. indentata, dent varieties ; Z. sac- 

 charata, sweet varieties; Z. amylacea, soft or flour corns; Z. amylacea- 

 saccharata, soft or starch sweet corns; Z. tunicata, pod corns. 



For the purposes of this article we need consider only the flint, dent 

 and sweet varieties. To the flint varieties belong practically all of the 

 old New England varieties of field corn. Most of them are compara- 

 tively early, although there is a wide variation. The plants are short 

 as compared with the dent varieties, and have a much greater inclina- 

 tion to produce suckers. Flint varieties of corn are somewhat less 

 fastidious as to soil and climatic conditions than dent varieties; and, 

 although there are now several dent varieties under successful culti- 

 vation in New England, it seems to be true that the soils and climate 

 of this section are on the whole better suited to flint varieties than to 

 dent. This seems to be indicated from the fact that dent varieties 

 of corn continuously cultivated in New England gradually lose some 

 of the characteristics of the dent class, and become more and more 

 like the flint type. The idea is quite generally held that corn of our 

 old New England flint varieties has a higher nutritive value than corn 

 of the dent varieties ; but neither the investigations of the chemist nor 

 those of the practical feeder lend confirmation to this view. It is 

 doubtless true that home-made meal from flint varieties averages 

 better than meal from dent varieties, but this is principally because 

 our home-grown corns are better ripened and better cured than western 

 grown. If grain is to be fed without grinding, corn of the dent variety 

 appears to be somewhat preferable to flint corn, for the grain is softer 



