77o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
November 12 
- Ruralisms 
MEXICAN JUNE CORN. 
THE FULL STORY OF THIS CEREAL. 
In the center of a round flower bed 
about eight feet in diameter, we planted 
a dozen kernels of the Mexican June 
corn about April 15. They all sprouted, 
but the plants were killed by the cold, 
rainy weather that followed. A second 
planting was made not until the last 
week in May. After the plants were 
well up, all were destroyed except two. 
Liberal dressings of nitrate of soda, sul¬ 
phate of potash, wood ashes, bone flour 
and horse manure were made from time 
to time. Our object was to find out how 
tall this corn could be forced to grow. 
During the season of 1897, the stalks 
grew to a height of 13 feet, and this in a 
rather poor soil under ordinary field 
culture. The nodes or leaves averaged 
seven inches apart, the old leaves aver¬ 
aged about four feet long and four inches 
wide. It will be seen that such plants 
would give an immense amount of foli¬ 
age per acre. The following table will 
show approximately the rate of growth 
from week to week : 
July 25. 5 feet high. 
August 2 . 7 feet 5 inches. 
August 9. 8 feet 8 inches. 
August 16. 9 feet 11 inches. 
August 24.11 feet 8 inches. 
September 11.13 feet. 
Our next measurement was not until 
September 27, when the taller plant 
measured 14 feet, the other being nearly 
the same height. After this, it made a 
growth of, perhaps, six inches when 
frost occurred. The tassels began to 
shed their pollen upon the silks of three 
sets the uppermost of which was 10 feet 
above the soil. The lowest set was eight 
feet above the soil. There were nine 
whorls of aerial roots, eight of which are 
shown at Fig. 346, first page, the highest 
being four feet a hove the soil. The longest 
leaves were five feet in length and four 
inches in width. 
At Fig. 347, the roots of a single aerial 
stem are shown, the soil having carefully 
been washed out of them. The main 
roots extended, probably, over the en¬ 
tire bed. No attempt was made to pre¬ 
serve them. We have raised this variety 
of corn for three seasons, and while all 
other kinds were more or less lodged by 
high winds, not a plant of the Mexican 
June was broken or bent from a perpen¬ 
dicular position. This is readily ac¬ 
counted for by its wonderful root system 
and the elasticity and toughness of the 
stalks, which resemble so many bamboo 
fishing rods. 
Following are some notes with which 
some of our readers have favored us, 
which will show how the Mexican June 
corn conducted itself with them : 
A. A. Ilalladay, of Bfllows Falls, Vt., 
writes under date of October 7 : “I 
have this season grown a stalk of Mexi¬ 
can June corn that measures 16 feet, and 
the first ear is 10 feet from the ground. 
I think this pretty good for Vermont.” 
Chas. Macon, of Ingleside, N. C., writes 
under date of September 22 : “I have 
two rows of Mexican June corn, the seed 
bought of James J. H. Gregory, of Mar¬ 
blehead, Mass. The stalks will average 
16 feet in height—some of them 18 feet. 
They have fair-sized ears that I think 
will mature—they are about half ma¬ 
tured now.” 
Mr. Benj. Buckman, of Farmingdale, 
Ill., as early as September 12 wrote : 
“ The tallest stalks of the Mexican June 
corn have reached the height of 14 feet, 
and if we have two weeks of warm 
weather, the ears now showing will pro¬ 
duce seeds that will grow.” 
Mr. W. M. Edwards, of Norwalk, Conn., 
under date of September 13, writes: 
“Acting upon your suggestion of last 
Spring, I sent for some seeds of the Mexi¬ 
can June corn, and at the present writ¬ 
ing, the stalks are from 17 to 18 feet 
high, all tasseled out with two ears of 
corn showing upon each stalk. It at¬ 
tracts considerable attention, as it is 
planted in a situation where it can be 
seen from an avenue, and I am daily 
answering all kinds of inquiries regard¬ 
ing it.” 
Mr. William Speke, of Tewksbury, 
Mass., under the early date of September 
8, writes: “I have read with interest 
your notes on the Mexican June corn, as 
I am also experimenting with it. I 
planted the seed on May 20, in five rows, 
each row about five yards long, forming 
one corner of a field of Longfellow, the 
patch being five yards square. It made 
a very poor start, much feebler than the 
Longfellow. When this was four feet 
high, the Mexican was just the same on 
the average. About August 18, I noticed 
two sets of silks on one stem, and to-day 
they seem to be fair-sized ears. You say 
that the ears do not mature with you. I 
am further north. To-day the stalks are 
nearly 14 feet high, though they grow 
too close together, as in the 25 yards of 
drill, there are about 130 stalks. Heavy 
rains and winds which bent and broke 
the Longfellow field corn did no injury 
that I could see to the Mexican.” 
Mr. William B. Covell, a subscriber, 80 
years of age, living in Sandusky, 0., 
favors us under “date of September 15, 
with the following: “Last Spring, I 
saw in The R. N.-Y. your notice of the 
Mexican J une corn. I planted it May 15 
on land upon which I had raised corn for 
two years, without manure of any kind. 
I measured some of it to-day, 15 feet 
high and seven inches around the stalks. 
There are four rows of braces. As yet 
there are but two stalks in silk.” 
Miss Mabel V E. Wilson, of Hopedale 
Ranch, Otis, New Mexico, under date of 
September 17, has this to say: “ The 
Mexican June corn takes the place of or¬ 
dinary field corn, and here in the Pecos 
Valley, will yield 40 bushels per acre on 
irrigated land. It makes excellent roast¬ 
ing ears.” 
It is certainly interesting and instruct¬ 
ive to note how the corn varies as to size 
and as to the forming and maturing of 
ears in different parts of the country. 
The business manager of The R. N.-Y. 
has tried it on his farm near White Lake, 
Sullivan County, N. Y. Here is his re¬ 
port : Planted late in June, about three 
weeks after regular field planting. The 
highest stalk was 11 feet 8 inches. Each 
stalk bore two large ears. Probably 
owing to the late planting, the ears did 
not get beyond eating stage. One close 
set of bracing roots branched from the 
stalk about seven inches above the 
ground, and ran down into the earth. 
The largest stalk was about two inches 
through. Cows ate the leaves, bat the 
stalk was about as hard as wood. 
One of the associate editors of The R. 
N.-Y., living in Union County, N. J., 
planted a 20-foot row about the middle 
of June on ordinary garden soil, along¬ 
side Country Gentleman sweet corn. All 
was fertilized with hen manure only. 
The Mexican could not be distinguished 
from the other until after midsummer, 
when it began to shoot up. It had sev¬ 
eral ears in the roasting stage at the 
time of the first frost, October 18. Eaten 
October 24, these were of excellent 
quality. The ears were of fair size, 
varying in number of rows of kernels, 
and heavily covered with closely-clinging 
husks. Most of the stalks bore one ear 
each, some two. The lowest ears were 
beyond the reach of a six-foot man, and 
some were 12 feet from the ground. The 
tallest stalk was 14 feet 4 inches high. 
All were so hard and woody that an ax 
was required to cut them down. 
AERIAL OR ADVENTITIOUS CORN 
ROOTS. 
WHAT ARE THEIR FUNCTIONS ? 
As our older readers are aware, TnE 
R. N.-Y. has tried, during the past 20 
years, nearly every known variety of 
field and sweet corn. Most kinds send 
out a whorl or so of aerial roots, the ob¬ 
ject of which seems to be to support 
rather than to nourish the plant. We 
have observed that the earlier the variety 
the fewer are these adventitious roots. 
We have also observed that, when a stalk 
in the earlier part of the season is more 
or less lodged by high winds, the aerial 
roots proceed from that portion of the 
node which is nearest to the soil, as if to 
prop it up. This is notably so in the 
Brazilian Flour corn, and such late, 
tall-growing varieties as Blount's Pro¬ 
lific and Chester County Mammoth. But 
in these kinds, it would seem as though 
these aerial roots were intended by Na¬ 
ture rather to support the plant than to 
supply additional nutriment. 
With the Mexican June, it is, evidently, 
different. The lower whorls of aerial 
stems send out as many fibrous roots as 
does the main stem itself, and these un¬ 
questionably absorb nutriment from the 
soil. Hence it is fair to suppose that 
the Mexican June corn will thrive in 
poorer soils and during severer droughts 
than other varieties. A number of friends 
have replied to the following queries: 
Will you be kind enough to tell us why some 
kinds of sweet and field corn send out adven¬ 
titious roots or “ fi ngers ” near the soil ? 
Why do some kinds send out more than others ? 
How do they help the plant ? Do they nourish 
it, or merely act as props ? 
From Dr. IN. J. Beal, of the Michigan 
Agricultural College. 
So far as I have observed, long-jointed, tall 
corn sends out roots from the nodes frequently, 
especially on one side, when the stalks lean over. 
Some plants of a certain kind of corn send out 
such roots while others do not. That some sorts 
should send out more roots than others, might 
be regarded as showing a peculiarity of such 
sort. These roots prop the stalks, and as soon 
as the soil is reached, draw nourishment through 
root hairs, like other roots of the plant. This 
happens to Crab or Finger grass, a common 
weed with tough roots. Rooting at the joints or 
nodes is, also, very common with June grass, 
Quack grass, Bermuda grass and others. Squash 
vines also root at the nodes, where kept moist. 
From Dr. Byron D. Ra/sted, of the 
New Jersey Experiment Station. 
You are much given to asking hard questions. 
I might throw some light upon your first one by 
asking another, namely: Why do certain kinds 
of plants root at the joint while others do not do 
so ? In short, it seems to be the nature of some 
plants to root above ground, while others are not 
so inclined. The foregoing is all to show that I 
am utterly unable to give a satisfactory reply 
to your question. I have noticed that corn plants, 
when bent over by a heavy, driving storm, have 
quite uniformly developed these aerial roots on 
the side nearest the ground. Vegetable physiol¬ 
ogists would say that there was a gravitation of 
the formative material to the lowermost side of 
the stem, and as a consequence, omitting several 
steps of the process, there would be developed 
these growing points resulting in the formation 
of adventitiotis roots, the use of which would be 
(Continued on next page.) 
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