THE IMPROVEMENT OF CORN 123 



should not be stored there. Cellars are not usually suitable 

 unless they are provided with furnace heat. Storing in 

 granaries over bins of grain is not safe, as the grain is likely 

 to heat or to give off moisture and injure the corn. 



156. Methods of Storing. As previously stated, (Sec. 

 154), seed corn in large quantities is usually stored in narrow 

 bins through which air can circulate quite freely. Some 

 practical methods of storing smaller quantities of corn on the 

 farm are shown in Figs. 40 and 41. The seed corn tree is a 

 square, octagonal, or round post 4 to 6 feet high, fixed to 

 stand erect on a broad base. Finishing nails are driven into 

 it just far enough apart so that when ears are jabbed on to 

 them, butts first, they will just miss one another. This 

 makes an excellent place to store seed corn. Another very 

 convenient way of hanging up seed corn is the double string 

 method illustrated in Fig. 41. 



IMPROVEMENT OF CORN 



157. Problems in Improvement. There are many prob- 

 lems connected with the improvement of seed corn which 

 are not met with in the improvement of some of the other 

 farm crops. The chief difficulty involved in improving corn 

 comes from the fact that it is open-fertilized; i. e., the female 

 flowers of one plant are naturally fertilized by pollen from 

 the male flowers of other plants. On this account selected 

 strains are very likely to become mixed with poorer indi- 

 viduals, and the work of selection may in this way be entirely 

 lost or its effect greatly reduced. While progress is made by 

 the selection of the best ears of corn, the ear is but an indi- 

 cation of the character of the mother plant on which it grew 

 and shows nothing of the character of the male plant or 

 plants that produced the pollen to fertilize its kernels. 



