162 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



soft corn, as its endosperm is practically all hard, horny 



starch. 



Sweet corn is grown chiefly for human food, either 

 green, dried or canned. The corn-can- 

 ning industry is now becoming very 

 important. 



Flint corn is characterized by having 

 the larger part of its endosperm hard. 

 It is still the prevailing type of field 

 corn in New York and New England. 

 It is earlier than most of the dent varie- 

 ties. Where the latter are successful, 

 they will out-yield the flint. The dent 

 types are nearly always grown for silage, 

 and some of the earlier dent varieties 

 are displacing the flint corn in many 

 localities. 



Dent corn has both horny and soft 

 endosperm. It is the presence of the 

 soft endosperm that causes the shrinking 

 when the grain ripens and results in the 

 "dent" at the top of the kernel. This is 

 the type that furnishes nearly all of the 

 world's corn crop. The flint corn is about 

 as much of a curiosity in the corn-belt 

 as is the pod corn. A large number of 



varieties have been developed. Some of the leading ones 



are the Learning, Reid's Yellow Dent, and, for northern 



sections, Pride of the North. 



There seems to be no difference in composition of the 



dent and the flint varieties. The difference between hard 



FIG. 70. A good ear 

 of dent corn 



