TEMPERATURE IN RELATION TO QUALITY OF SWEET- 

 CORN 



By Neil E. Stevens, Pathologist, Fruit Disease Investigations, Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, and C. H. HiGGiNS, Instructor in 

 Chemistry, Bates College, Lewiston,Me} 



INTRODUCTION 



The temperature at which green sweetcorn {Zca mays) is held after 

 picking has an important relation to its quality. Certain features of 

 this relation are discussed in the present paper. That sweetcorn canned 

 near the northern limit of its cultivation is sweeter and its general 

 quality superior to that canned farther south seems to be generally 

 accepted (9, p. 24^; 10, p. 36)? The correctness of this belief is attested 

 by the fact that it has been customary for many corn growers in Mary- 

 land, for example, to purchase northern-grown seed in the belief that a 

 sweeter corn would thus be obtained {10, p. 31), and by the reputation 

 of "Maine sweetcorn." 



That any difference in the quality of the canned corn is not due to a 

 difference in the sugar content of the corn when it is picked seems fully 

 proved by the investigations of Straughn and Church {14). These 

 investigators determined the sugar content of freshly picked corn of the 

 same variety at a series of stations located in Florida, South Carolina, 

 New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maine during the four years from 1905 to 

 1908. In contrast to the condition found in sugar beets, this work 

 failed to show any direct relation between the latitude in which the 

 com was grown and the sugar content. Corn grow^n in South Carolina 

 showed the highest percentage of sugar, that grown in Connecticut the 

 lowest, that from Maryland and Maine (Crosby variety) intermediate 

 and about equal {14, p. 62)} 



The writers believe that the advantage of northern-packed corn lies, 

 at least in part, in the lower temperatures at which it is handled, and the 

 present paper aims to present the follov>'ing salient points in this con- 

 nection: (i) That sweetcorn deteriorates very rapidly after it is picked, 



(2) that the rate of this deterioration depends upon temperature, and 



(3) that the differences in climatic temperatures, and consequently in the 



' The work on which the present paper is based was done while the writers were investigating the 

 diseases of sweetcorn in Maine, through the courtesy and at the expense of the Office of Cereal Investiga- 

 tions. Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture. 



2 Reference is made by number (italic) to "Literature cited," p. 2S3-284. 



3 The cur\-es published by Straughn and Church (p. 59-60) are somewhat misleading, since, as ex- 

 plained in the text, results from analyses of both Crosby and Stowell varieties are included for Maryland 

 and only the Crosby variety, having a higher sugar content than the Stowell, was grown in Maine. 



Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. X\^I, No. 6 



Washington, D. C. Sept. 15, 1919 



si KeyNo. G-178 



(275) 



