720 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The methods are changing constantly. The first ten years of my exper- 

 ience corn was handled exclusively on the cob, but of late the bulk of it is 

 shelled and cleaned and put in two-bushel sacks, all ready for the popper. 

 In shelling we use a cy Under power sheller, but a spring sheller will 

 answer the purpose very v.ell. We can shell about 100,000 pounds per day 

 at about the same cost as field corn. Occasionally a customer will want 

 it shelled and loaded in bulk. This is a nice way, as it saves a whole lot 

 of hard labor. Shelled popcorn is the heaviest grain that grows, testing 

 sixty-four pounds to the bushel. There is no standard weight for it; 

 it is all handled by the hundred pounds. 



I sold one year two cars to a Boston man, and we put it up in one- 

 pound paper cartons and packed sixty in a wooden case, like soap. This 

 makes a very nice package for a merchant to place on his shelves, but by 

 the time a farmer fills 48,000 of these boxes he wishes for some other 

 mode of operation. I built a galvanized-iron floor large enough to hold a 

 car-load of "corn, and dried it by steam. This did not pay, as it cost me for 

 fuel-^and labor more than I got extra for the work. All corn shipped west 

 of the Missouri river has to be shelled, as the freight is too high to load 

 on the cob. and on account of the dry atmosphere it can be handled early 

 in the fall without danger of molding, but the nearer the coast we get 

 the drier it has to be. We have shipped corn down east that popped 

 perfectly when loaded here that wouldn't pop well on arrival at des- 

 tination. It is very sensitive to moisture. 



AYIIOM TO SELL TO. 



I believe there are more rascals handling pop-corn than in any other 

 line of business. When I find an honest man I stick to him like a brother. 

 I have shipped car-loads of pop-corn that hardly paid me freight, not on 

 account of the corn being damaged, but on account of the man who 

 rceeived it being dishonest. Some firms will offer a good, stiff price for 

 corn, and when they get it they will have a kick on quality or something 

 else and compel the seller to take less than the agreement, or refuse the 

 corn, and the seller must accept their price, rather than pay freight both 

 ways. 



"The town of Odebolt, Iowa, sends more pop-corn to market than any 

 other town in the United States. The average consumption of pop-corn 

 for the last five years has been about 300 car loads for the United States. 

 A great many people ask me what becomes of all this corn that is growH 

 here, and when I tell thorn that it is all popped and consumed they will 

 hardly believe me. A great many people have the idea that it is manu- 

 factured into some kind of breakfast food, or used as an adulteration 

 of flour. This is not so. In the first place, pop-corn is too expensive to 

 admit of its being used for this purpose. 



All through the mountain regions there are little towns that are quite 

 large consumers of pop-corn. In the South there is but very little corn 

 grown, and this is another very good market. The largest consumers of 

 pop-corn are the New England states. Prbably three-fonrths of all the 



