718 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



not produce so mwch per acre, but usually bring a higher price. White 

 Pearl and Mammoth Queen, which have larger ears and consequently 

 produce more per acre, are not so expensive. Compared with Indian corn 

 th* return per acre is usually grafter, but it costs more to raise it, as the 

 ground must be in better condition and the plants must be given better 

 culture, particularly in the earlier stages. Moreover, it is generally con- 

 sidered a market garden crop, and in smaller cities there is no steady 

 market for it, and occasionally there is a loss in selling. Ordinary field 

 corn is a surer crop, is more easily handled; but where the grower is 

 favorably located, and is reasonably sure of a market, an acre or two of 

 pop-corn might be more profitable. 



GROWING AND MARKETING l^OP-CORN. 



By Harry Slater, Iowa, in Oremge Judd Farmer. 



I kn»w of no better way to cover the subject of pop-corn culture than 

 to give my twenty-four years' exparience in growing, curing and mar- 

 keting White Rice pop-corn. The reader of this article may draw his 

 own conclusions as to the advisability of engaging in the business. 



In the spring of 1880 I came to Iowa from Whiteside county, Illinois. 

 There was nothing here at that time but prairie. I brought a little pop- 

 corn along and planted it in the sod broken that spring. The fsummer 

 being quite wet, it made a fair growth, and the quality was No. 1. The 

 following spring I planted one acre «nd worried constantly as to how I 

 was going to gather the crop and find a market for so much pop-corm. 

 "Well, in the fall at gathering time I went in the field and snapped it and 

 threw it iato an old corn-crib. I had two big wagon loads of snapped 

 corn. The next day I invited the all neighbor boys to help me husk it, and 

 by twelve o'clock at night we had th» last nubbin husked. Oh! what a 

 sight — enough com to supply the whole Untied States and som« for 

 export, 80 I thought. This corn weighed 2500 pounds and it sold in 

 Chicago at 6 cents per pound, a pretty good price for an acre of corn. 



This set me to thinking and the next year I planted 5 acres and 

 received 4 cents per pound; the next year I planted 10 acres, and the 

 neighl)ors thought I was crazy to put in so much pop-corsx It seemed Ho 

 th»m r never could find market for so much, but I kept right on doubling 

 my acreage until I gc^ Hp to 150 acres. The price kept coming down all 

 the time, until at the present time if we can get 1 cent per pound fron 



tjae field we still «(b.11 it a paying crop. 



? 



PUTTING rN TbU CBQP. 



Any soil that will produce good fiqid corn will grow pop-corn; tl»B 

 better the soil the better the quality, and quality is what sells it, th* 



