34 FIELD CROP PRODUCTION 



exposed by a field of corn would be several times the area on 

 which the plants stand. At maturity about 20 per cent 

 of the weight of the plant is leaf, although earlier in the 

 period of growth the percentage of leaf is greater. The 

 decrease during the ripening period is due in part to loss 

 of lower leaves and in part to the transfer of food to the 

 developing ear. 



30. The flowers. — Cultivated corn bears its flowers on 

 two separate parts of the plant, this feature distinguishing 

 it from the other cereals. The male or staminate flowers 

 are borne in spikelets arranged on a branched tassel on 

 the top of the stalk. The tassel, which is usually from 

 5 to 12 inches long, is made up of a central branch, and 

 of from eight to ten lateral branches, growing out near the 

 base of the central branch. The spikelets each contain 

 two flowers, which, when mature, dangle the anthers on 

 long filaments over the edge of the glumes, permitting 

 the pollen to be spread by the breeze. Have you not often 

 wondered why there is always an even number of rows 

 on an ear of corn? It is because the female or pistillate 

 flowers are borne in spikelets which are arranged in pairs 

 on the cob. Each of the spikelets has two flowers, but 

 one flower in each does not develop. Thus in reality 

 there is but one fertile flower in each spikelet, and since 

 the latter are arranged in pairs, two rows of kernels 

 develop together. The style or silk extends from the 

 ovulary to beyond the end of the husk, bearing a stigma 

 covered with a sticky substance to catch the pollen. The 

 silks from the lower ovules are the first to appear beyond 

 the husk, and therefore are the first to be fertilized, so 

 that the first kernels to appear on the ear are at the base 

 of the cob. After fertihzation has taken place, the style 

 withers and dies. In some varieties of corn there may be 



