CORN 159 



Few persons realize that there is much more sunshine in 

 Illinois than in Louisiana during the summer months. 

 Not only are there more hours of daylight, but the sunshine 

 is much more intense. When rains come, they are usually 

 of short duration and are followed by bright sunshine. 

 The glaring sunlight of the middle West is one of its natural 

 resources worth more than gold mines. 



In the corn-belt of the United States there does not 

 seem to be any very definite relationship between varia- 

 tions in temperature from year to year and the corn crop. 

 But there is a very decided relationship between rain- 

 fall and yield. Again, it is not the rainfall of the year, 

 but that of the growing period, that is most important. 

 The rainfall of western England is 37 inches per year. 

 That of Lincoln, Nebraska, is 27 inches. Yet the latter 

 rainfall is better adapted to corn, because 16 inches of 

 the year's supply falls in May, June, July and August, 

 while in England only 11 inches falls during these months. 

 The summer rainfall is deficient in most parts of Europe 

 and Asia that might otherwise be adapted to corn. Fig. 68 

 shows the relationship of rainfall to yield of corn. It will 

 be seen that the line representing the rainfall for June, 

 July and August is almost parallel with the line represent- 

 ing the yield per acre. 



152. Why We Raise Corn. Where corn thrives, it pro- 

 duces about twice as much food per acre as is produced 

 by any of the other grains. This, together with the limited 

 area of land with a corn climate, makes the farms in our 

 corn-belt very high in price. It also makes it possible to 

 grow corn in many regions that are not best adapted to 

 it. A half-crop of corn may produce as much food as 



