CORN. 
133 
the soil well crumbled, if necessary, by the harrow, 
the land should be marked out in squares of three 
feet. Then, where the lines of the squares cross each 
other about half a dozen seeds should be sown. This 
number allows for the weakly plants to be pulled 
up, as only four should be reared at each point. 
They will send up suckers near the bottom of the 
stem, but these must be nipped off, that they may 
not weaken the plant. Of course weeds must not 
be allowed to rob the growing corn of its food, and 
the top-soil must be loosened from time to time to 
let in air and moisture. 
6. Corn, like many other plants of the grass 
family, to which it belongs, sends down roots from 
the joints at the lower part of the stem. It is 
therefore well to ‘earth up’ the plants; that is, 
to draw the soil around them with the hoe, so that 
the new roots from the stem may enter the ground 
and take a share in drawing up plant-food from it. 
7 . In about three months the whitened husks and 
hardened seeds will show us that the ears are ripe 
for cutting. When that has been done great care 
will be needful to let the ears get thoroughly dry, 
either by laying them out in the sun, or by hanging 
them up in a shed. 
The old plan of ‘ shelling ’ the corn by hand is 
a slow and awkward one, and machines are now in 
general use where much shelling has to be done. 
