396 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
BEST VARIETIES OF SWEET CORN AND THEIR 
CULTURE. 
J. S. HARRIS, LA CRESCENT, 
The cultivation of sweet corn as a staple market crop is of a rather 
modern date, but it is a growing and often a profitable industry, and the 
product has become one of the common luxuries of the table. Few of the 
fathers of our older members ever enjoyed the pleasure of seeing it set upon 
the table steaming hot, at least once a day from July to November, and we,: 
their favored descendents, can hardly realize how they managed to live with- 
out it. True, they had roasting ears for a few days, but they were of some 
of the varieties of common field corn, 
I do not, know the origin of or where the first sweet corn came from. 
Some of us can remember when there was but one variety, and that was 
known as “sugar corn,’ and but very few people had it. Field corn was 
most generally used in its place as long as it remained in a fit condition for 
use. Now there are more than a score of distinct popular named varieties, 
and it is found not only in the market but in nearly every village and farm 
garden, and is to be had fresh in the market from early July until nipped 
by the autumn frosts, and immense quantities are canned and used the whole 
year around. 
The varieties of sweet corn differ from the field corn in that they con- 
tain a greater abundance of sugar and that the grain when ripe is much 
shriveled and wrinkled, and of a peculiar horny texture. It was probably 
known and in use by the Indians, and, I think, was mentioned by Roger 
Williams in a work published about the middle of the seventeenth century, 
but it is not mentioned by McMahon in his ¢omprehensive work on garden- 
ing, published in 1806. As with the common corn, it is easy to fix any 
desired quality by using care, such as earliness, size and color of cob, quality 
and habit, but difficult to keep it from mixing and deteriorating if grown 
in proximity to other varieties or types. While it is not a very profitable 
crop for the market gardener who is restricted to a few acres of high priced 
land, farmers who are near enough to villages and large cities generally find 
the growing of it very profitable, it generally netting two or three times 
as much per acre as the field corn. 
Sweet corn yields the best and is of the best quality when grown on good, 
deep, rich, loamy soil, but may be had a few days earlier by planting on 
highly fertilized sandy soil. It should not be planted here until the ground 
is dry enough to work nicely and the soil warm enough so that it will come 
up quickly, which is not usually the case before the middle of May. After 
it is really safe to plant, several varieties may be planted on the same date to 
ensure continuous succession, and then plantings of one or two of the best 
varieties should be made every two weeks until the first week in July, which 
is about the latest that we can be sure of a crop. It may be planted in drills, 
two and a half to three feet apart for the small, early varieties and about 
four feet apart for the larger and later kinds, leaving a stalk, each ten inches 
or a foot apart in the row, or it may be grown in hills three to four feet 
apart with about four stalks to each hill. The ground should be well pre- 
pared and manured before planting, and the growing crop should have very 
frequent and thorough cultivation, and for the earliest something is gained 
by manuring in the hill or drill at the time of planting. After the corn is 
ready for use there is considerable of a knack in handling it and getting it 
