Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson CLXIX · Topic 25: Farm and garden crops
169. The maize, or Indian corn
Goal: Your child explains how a corn plant is built to stand up to the wind, and studies an ear of corn: husk, silk, cob and kernels.
You'll need
- Nature notebook, pencil and colored pencils
- Two or three ears of fresh corn with husks (from a store, farm stand or garden)
- A ruler
- A cornstalk if you can get one
What's in the book
A photograph of Seneca women husking corn, a Teacher's Story about maize, and a long lesson: Leading thought, Method, twenty questions on the plant, the ear and its growth, and four experiments.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Comstock says the study may begin when corn is planted in spring and continue through summer, or be done in autumn with a grown plant. Visit a cornfield only with the farmer's permission, or use a garden plant or fresh ears from a farm stand.
The leading thought
The Indian corn, or maize, is a plant of much beauty and dignity. It has wonderful adaptations for the development of its seed and for resisting its arch-enemy, the wind.
Built for wind
Describe the central stem. How many joints, or nodes, has it? Of what use to the plant are these nodes?
Does the leaf tear easily across? Does it tear easily lengthwise? Of what use to the leaf is this condition?
Describe the roots of the corn plant. Describe the brace-roots. Explain their use.
If you have a leaf, try tearing it both ways.
Husk and silk
After carefully removing the husk, examine the silk and see if there is a thread for every kernel.
Peel back the husks slowly. Follow one silk thread down to its kernel. Each silk is part of one flower, and each kernel grew from a flower that caught pollen on its silk.
Count
How many rows of kernels are there on an ear? How many kernels in a row? How many on the whole ear?
Count the rows on two or three ears. Is the number always even?
Pollen from above
What carries the pollen for the corn plant?
The tassel on top is the pollen flower; the wind carries its pollen down to the silks.
Nature notebook
Draw a corn plant with its brace-roots, tassel and ear, and a cross-section of a broken ear, as Comstock suggests in question 14.
Afterwards
Try Comstock's Experiment 2 on a growing cornstalk: ~ Measure the distance between two of the nodes or joints near the tip of a certain corn-stalk. Two weeks later measure this distance again and compare the two.
Tip
The leading thought says “Indian corn.” Corn was first grown by the Indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America thousands of years ago and was a main crop of many Native American nations, like the Seneca in the book's photograph.
Answers to the book's problems
The rows come in pairs, so an ear always has an even number of rows (often 12 to 18). The wind carries corn pollen. Brace-roots grow from the lowest joints and prop the stalk against the wind.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.