424 The Principles of Vegetable - Gardening 



The cultivation of sweet corn is not unlike that of 

 field corn, with the exception that greater attention is 

 paid to earliness and to the development cff. each indi- 

 vidual plant. It is therefore given, if possible, an 

 earlier and warmer soil, with quickly available fertil- 

 izers, and it is usually grown in hills rather than in 



Fig. 136. Sweet com seedlings. Nearly natural size. 



continuous drills. The idea is to secure as many ears 

 as possible, and therefore each stalk should be given an 

 abundance of room. In field corn, on the contrary, 

 particularly since the advent of the silo, the fodder may 

 be quite as important as the grain. If the season is 

 short and the soil is hard and backward, it is well to add 

 a little commercial fertilizer to each hill in order to start 

 the plants off quickly. Seed is planted for the early 

 crop as soon as the ground is thoroughly warm. Since 



