154 THE ROMANCE OF EVERIFARM 



as he found himself taken up by the root hairs of the 

 tiny rootlets of the corn plant, and he chuckled to 

 himself as he thought of the joke he was now playing 

 on Farmer Good. 



However, Farmer Good had been thinking all win- 

 ter. In all the literature of experiment stations and 

 colleges of agriculture he could discover no solution 

 of the problem, so he determined to find out for 

 himself what was causing all the trouble, and what 

 the cure for it was, if possible. One day in March 

 he was inspecting the seed corn which was being 

 germinated in the seed house. This com that 

 would be used for planting the fields of the big 

 farm had had ten kernels removed from each 

 ear, and placed in the germinator containing warm, 

 damp sawdust, kept at a constant temperature of 

 eighty degrees. Here the kernels that were from 

 perfect ears germinated and produced the young 

 plant and roots. This March morning, while Farmer 

 Good was looking over the different sets of kernels, 

 he noted a few kernels which had germinated well 

 but at the same time were covered with mold 

 — some with a spider-web type, others with a white 

 cotton-like mold, another of a dark slate color, and 

 others of a pink color which at once attracted his at- 

 tention. 



