170 SWEET CORN 
other substances. The rapidity of this changing process 
can be arrested to a certain extent only by handling the 
corn quickly and keeping it at as low a temperature as 
possible. A large body of plucked sweet corn will heat 
very quickly and become worthless, because the chemical 
change brought about by the heating destroys the sugar 
in the corn. If any northern section of the country has 
any advantage over another in producing good sweet 
sugar corn, it is because it has such a low temperature 
that the corn can be kept in a tender and cool stage for 
a longer period of time. 
An excessive rainfall is injurious to sweet corn. Dur- 
ing a dry season if a healthy growth can be maintained 
the product will contain more sugar. By proper cultiva- 
tion during dry weather a healthy growth can be main- 
tained and a large growth of corn can be produced. 
The author demonstrated this during the seasons of 1908 
and 1909 to his complete satisfaction. The season of 
1908 was very dry, and his crop of sweet corn was the 
best quality and the best yield he ever produced. The 
season of 1909 was too wet, and his crop did not come 
up to quantity produced to the acre by a ton or more, 
and the quality was not as good. 
When the skin of the grains of sweet corn is broken 
it undergoes fermentative changes at a rapid rate be- 
cause of its high percentage of sugar, and this also 
affords an opportunity for dangerous bacteria to enter 
into the corn juices, resulting in sour corn, the canners’ 
worst enemy. No amount of heat that can be applied 
by canning apparatus will destroy them. It is said that 
the source of the germ of these bacteria is from the ears 
