338 



1.35 square inches of surface in this field. These were 

 planted four kernels in each hill, which produced an aver- 

 age of 3.77 ears or 1179 kernels per hill — the yield then 

 was 1179-4 equal to 294 75-100, or nearly three hundred 

 fold. Having before obir^crved that many stalke produced 

 two fair full ears, had eacli stalk done so the yield ought to 

 have been 625 48-100 fold. Might not the yield have been 

 increased by planting the hills farther apart with fewer ker- 

 nels in them? Had there been planted three kernels per 

 hill — the hills being 3 1-2 feet apart each way, — had also 

 each stallc produced two full ears, the whole yield would 

 have been at the rate of 178 4-10 bushels of ears per acre. 



Seven fair specimens of the eight rowed ears were shelled, 

 giving 2384 kernels which exactly filled a tin measure of 68 

 cubic inches in capacity — result, 35 kernels occupy a square 

 inch, and 75,582 kernels per bushel, and to shell this 

 amount would require 2 3-1000 bushels of ears ; thus 

 confirming the usual allowance of two bushels of ears to give 

 one Inishel of shelled corn. 



Putting water into the measure containing the 23 84 ker- 

 nels — it was found that 65 parts were occuj)ied by the corn 

 and 35 by the waicr. 



I next selected an 8 rowed variety called the " King 

 Philip corn" the ears being large and having very large 

 kernels, while the 8 rowed variety, spoken of before, was 

 of moderate size. Two ears of the King Philip corn, se- 

 lected at random, measured on the average 5 3-4 inches 

 around the butt of the ear, 5 inches round the middle, 

 and 4 inches around the tip, and they measured 18 

 inches each around the ear lengthwise, and the two ears 

 together weighed one pound. There were 41 kernels per 

 row, and the rows averaged in length 7.5 inches, the number 

 of kernels on both ears 669 ; the two ears together displaced 

 26.3387 cubic inches of water, the 669 kernels displaced 

 18.0718 inches, the cobs displaced 9.6199 inches ; hence the 

 ratio of corn to cob was 1.877 that of ear to corn 1.457, that 

 of ear to cob 2.738, and that of corn and cob to unshelled 

 ear 1.051 ; here also we see the same result namely the 

 shelled corn and cob occupying more space than the un- 

 shelled ear, it might possibly be due to the swelling of the 



