312 LUTHER BURBANK 



This is an enormous acreage and a colossal 

 output. Yet it seems almost insignificant in 

 comparison with the record of corn. For to 

 that crop 106,884,000 acres were devoted, and 

 the crop harvested aggregated 3,125,000,000 

 bushels. 



Nothing that could be added would better 

 show the supremacy of King Corn than this cita- 

 tion of comparative statistics. A crop that tops 

 the three billion bushel mark stands by itself 

 among all the products of the cultivated acres 

 of the world. Not only is it America's greatest 

 crop; there is no crop of any other cereal or any 

 single vegetable product whatever that equals 

 this record anywhere in the world. 



It is true that the corn crops of other nations 

 are comparatively insignificant in contrast with 

 the crops of small grains. But this is merely 

 because corn demands peculiar conditions, not- 

 ably a very hot summer, to bring its product to 

 perfection. A large quantity of corn is ex- 

 ported; and the beef and pork that corn has 

 produced are sent everywhere. 



THE ANCESTOR OF KING CORN 



Among the most interesting experiments that 

 I have performed in the development of corn 

 have been those that had to do with the primitive 



