54 AGRICULTURE. 



This grain will grow in poorer soil than wheat and much 

 further north. It is a rather hearty and gross feeder and 

 produces very large crops on rich soil. 



BARLEY. This grain is classed as two-rowed, four-rowed 

 and six-rowed, according to the number of rows of kernels in 

 the head. The two-rowed requires a longer season of growth 

 than the six-rowed, which is one of the most rapidly growing 

 and maturing grains that we have. Barley is used as a food 

 for stock, and also for the making of malt out of which beer is 

 brewed. Its value for malting depends upon the soil and 

 climate. It must be of bright color, well filled, and all ripened 

 so that it will sprout evenly in malting. 



CORN OR MAIZE. In Great Britain the name corn is applied 

 to either wheat or any bread-producing cereal, in North America 

 it means Indian corn or Maize. The distinction is made of 

 sweet corn which is used for food by man, and common corn, 

 which again is divided into flint and dent. Flint corn ha.s a 

 hard flinty kernel, and dent has the indented form on the tip 

 of the grain. The roots are long and therefore the plant feeds 

 quite deeply and requires a soil of deep cultivation. It has 

 long heavy leaves and thick stalks, not hollow like the previous 

 grains, but more or less filled. It bears heavy ears and pro- 

 duces large quantities of food per acre. We at once conclude 

 that it takes much more food from the soil than the others, that it 

 is a heavy feeder and requires heavy manuring. When well 

 cultivated, it is a good cleaning crop. 



The blossoming of the corn is worth noticing. Fine silky 

 threads may be seen hanging from the end of the green ear, all 

 attached to the cob these are the "styles," the female portion 

 of the blossom. At the top of the stalk is " the tassel " which 

 carries the stamens or male portion of the blossom. The pollen 

 from these falls down upon the pistils of the ear and there 

 completes the blossoming. If different varieties of corn are 

 planted near together the pollen from the tassels of one variety 



