Barley for malting should be cut before fully ripe and put in well-capped shocks to cure; the price paid is largely governed by the color acquired in curing, which should be bright. A bushel weighs forty-eight pounds, and the yield is from twenty-five to forty bushels per acre.
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a grain of minor importance, its flour being used as human food, mostly in the form of griddle cakes. The plant is esteemed for plowing under in summer, to supply humus, and its blossoms for the honey bee. Most of it is grown in New York and Pennsylvania, and it does well in soils too poor for most other crops. It is sensitive to frost, and used as a sort of catch crop, sown generally about the beginning of July, broadcast. Forty bushels, weighing forty-eight pounds per bushel, is a maximum yield.
Clover (Trifolium pratense). In the states east of the Missouri river red clover is highly esteemed. It has much the same qualities as alfalfa, except it is a biennial, enduring but two years without re-seeding and at best gives two cuttings of hay per year, aggregating two to three tons. It is from the second cutting that seed is usually saved. Four quarts of seed is a common quantity to sow per acre. Red clover makes excellent hay, except for horses. Its seed, like that of alfalfa, weighs sixty pounds per bushel, and its yield is from one to five bushels per acre.
White Clover (Trifolium repens) is a very useful pasture and honey plant, but is not used for hay. It spreads rapidly, and is widely used for sowing with other pasture grasses.
Alsike Clover (Trifolium hybridum) is largely sown on lands not well adapted to red clover, where land is either too wet or too dry for the latter, and it does not require so sweet a soil.
THE COSTLIEST EARS OF CORN IN THE WORLD
The champion ten ears of corn shown in the illustration average ten and one-half inches in length and seven and three-quarters in circumference, each ear carrying twenty rows of kernels, the depth of the kernels being three fourths of an inch, and the average weight of each ear was twenty ounces. They were sold at the rate of $2,345 per bushel or $335 for the ten ears. The champion single ear of corn was sold at the Omaha National Corn Show for $85.
Corn (Zea mays). Indian corn, or maize is a product native to America, an annual, and is the most important member of the grass family. It is America’s foremost cereal, with a wider adaptability than any other, and is grown in every state and territory. The temperate climate of the Central States is most favorable to it, and Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Indiana, Kansas and Ohio are the leading states in its planting. The bulk of the world’s production of maize is grown in this country, although it is an important crop in Hungary, Italy, Egypt, South Africa, and other parts of the world.
Economic Uses.—Corn is of primary importance as a food for live stock, enormous quantities being used to fatten cattle and swine.