The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1916-03-16

Copyright, 1918,
Finishing the first row, with his hoe
he chopped the fertilizer lightly into
! the soil, then pulled all that dirt and
some from the middle Of the rows to-
ward the cOrnstalks, where it lay,
light, porous mound. easy for the root
lets to penetrate, and charged with all
the elements necessary to make the
corn do its level best.
He was four days doing it, and when
he finished the last row in the prize
acre he examined the root stems of the
first row. They had grown almost half
an inch and were nearly touching the
dirt he had pulled toward them.
He discovered another function these
above ground roots possessed. The
the heavy dew each night or some
slight shower, and the moisture would
condense and roll down the broad
leaves until it reached the main stalk;
then it would triCkle down the stem
until it reached this circle of roots,
then down them to the soil in perfect
circle of moisture about the plant to
assist in its growth.
Joe was well tired out when he got
through fixing the corn and hired Link
to pillow out the Mexican June corn.
give the cotton Il dose of fertilizer and
throw some more dirt toward it and to
assist in cutting off a lot of sweet po-
tato vines which were hauled to the
pig lot to give Mike and John L. some
green food. The rest of the vines were
thrown back without cutting on top of
their rows and final blowing and hill
ing given the potatoes.
In about week the tiny ears Of corn
on the stalks in the prize acre began to
show. The additional roots were now
striking into the fertilizer One could
almost see the corn growing. and on
still. quiet night person could actual
ly hear it, faint, gentle whispering
rustic as the leaves gradually unfolded
Here and there the tasselS began to
show, and the pink and white silk Of
the young ears was growing longer.
had arrived, and it was applied pre-
cisely as the fertilizer had been. except
that Joe took a rake and merely abrad
ed the crust of ground Oh the hills so
the nitrate could lie absorbed more rap
idly. Ii addition, this working would
not tear and break natures arrange
ment of rootlets as a deep blowing or
hOeing would do. Four days after the
nitrate was applied the field was in full
tassel.
Joe admired the beautiful pink silk
on the ends of the corn ears greatly
One day he was looking at tassel on
top Of the stalk when one of the many
honeybees scrambllng busily around
flew, and the motion and air from the
wings Of the insect caused a faint puff
Of very fine yellow powder to drop
from the tassel and float downward in
the still air.
He looked the matter up in his book
that night and found that the real
blossom Of the corn is the tassel; that
the tassel is composed Of hundreds of
oblong little cups open at the outer
end, the other being attached to the
rib, or stem. which in turn grew from
the main stem of the tassel.
He found that this yellow powder
was the pollen This was shaken out
Of the blooms by the wind, by bees
and other insects and fell of its own
weight until some of it was caught by
the waving silk, which was slightly
damp and gummy to make it stick.
Each strand of silk he found con-
nected with a grain of the embryo
or tiny corn. Each strand Of silk was
q sort Of above ground root formed for
the express purpose Of catching a bit
of the pollen powder. When the pre-
ciOus grains fell upon the silk it was
absorbed, transmitted to the tiny grain.
which then grew into perfect one.
In this way the grain of corn was
pollinated, one of those mysterious
and wonderful requirements Of nature
the exact secret of which and precise
reasons for have never yet been re-
vealed to man. Certain it Is, however,
that If the pollen with its hidden and