222 GARDEN FARMING 



" Curing and drying. The essentials to the proper curing of 

 sweet corn are that each and every ear shall be exposed to circu- 

 lating air until the grain is perfectly dry and that this be accom- 

 plished without exposure, even for a few hours, to a temperature 

 below 34 or 36 F. The vitality of green corn while it is still in 

 the milk or dough state will be destroyed by long exposure to a 

 low temperature, even if it be one several degrees above the freez- 

 ing point, but as the grain matures and dries out it will endure 

 lower temperatures without serious injury, although long exposure 

 to temperatures much below 32 F. lessens its vitality. 



" One of the best and safest ways to cure seed corn is that 

 commonly practiced by the New England growers, the corn being 

 spread in open sheds or barns on scaffolds formed of rails or slats so 

 placed as to allow the air to pass freely between them. The corn 

 should be spread very thinly at first not more than two or three 

 ears deep or, better still, in a single layer, but it may be piled 

 deeper as it dries out, care being taken not to do this until the 

 corn is so dry that it will not mold. 



" A second method of curing seed corn is by the use of drying 

 sticks about I by 2 or 3 inches and about 4 feet long. Old fence 

 pickets are often used for this purpose. They are prepared as fol- 

 lows : Bore a half-inch hole about 2 inches from the end, and 

 drive into each of the four sides of the stick, about 3 inches apart, 

 a series of eightpenny or tenpenny round-headed wire nails, so that 

 they will enter the wood about f inch and project at a uniform 

 angle of between 1 5 and 20 F. toward the end of the stick having 

 the hole. On each nail jam the butt of an ear of corn so that the 

 ears stand out in four directions from the sticks, which should 

 then be hung on nails in the rafters of a low, open shed or on 

 scantling placed at proper distances apart in such a building 

 as a tobacco shed. It takes some time to stick the ears on the 

 nails, but when this is done the corn can be well cured with little 

 further attention. 



" A third method is to husk into lath crates holding from I to 

 2 bushels of ears, and stack these crates either in the field, well 

 protected from rain, or on the floor of barns where there is a full 

 circulation of air. In either case the crates should be so stacked 

 that the wind can pass freely through and between them. 



