194 Irrigation and Drainage 



mally, the tassels coming into bloom before the silks were ready to 

 receive the pollen, and it looked then as though the failure to 

 develop the normal amount of ears might result from this ab- 

 normal development, in time, of the staminate and pistillate 

 flowers. 



The facts are that very few kernels at all formed on the non- 

 irrigated dent variety, and only imperfect ears matured on the 

 flint variety ; while on the irrigated plots very many ears never 

 filled at all, and with many of those which did develop ears, the 

 kernels did not cover the entire cob, it being very often observed 

 that no kernels at all formed at the butt of the ear, and sometimes 

 none even half way to the tip. Whether the thick seeding and 

 rapid growth stimulated by irrigation retards the development of 

 the ear by shading, or overstimulates the maturing of the tassel 

 so as to interfere with the proper fertilization, cannot be decided 

 from data yet at hand, although the appearance of the plants 

 looks very much as though such an abnormal development had 

 been brought about. 



The nodes of the stalks are certainly lengthened by the close 

 planting and irrigation practiced, but not all are equally affected. 

 If it is true that a certain intensity of sunlight is required for the 

 proper maturing of the ear, it might be anticipated that the effect 

 of the shading would stimulate a greater elongation of the lower 

 than of the upper nodes of the stem, thus placing the ear in more 

 intense light. To ascertain whether any such change as this had 

 occurred, measurements were made of 40 stalks of irrigated thick 

 planting, and a corresponding number of plants not so closely 

 planted and not irrigated, of Pride of the North dent, with the 

 result that in the non-irrigated corn the height of the axil bear- 

 ing the ear was 46.82 per cent of the height from the ground to 

 the base of the tassel ; while that of the irrigated corn was 55.2 

 per cent of the height. That is to say, the ear axil in the thickly 

 planted irrigated corn was raised 8.38 per cent nearer to the 

 tassel. 



In a second set of measurements, with the same variety of 

 corn, the height of the axil bearing the ear was 49.44 per cent of 

 the height of the tassel above the ground, while under the condi- 



