LEADING CEREALS AND THEIR BY-PRODUCTS 119 



In sweet corn the starch is hornlike and tough. Before hardening, 

 the milky kernels of this race carry much glucose, which is changed to 

 starch as they mature into the shrunken grain. Sweet corn has some- 

 what more crude protein and fat and less carbohydrates than the 

 other races. 



The length of the growing season exerts a deep influence upon the 

 type of corn. In the South the tropical corn stems, 4 or 5 months 

 from planting, carry great ears burdened with grain so high that a 

 man can only touch them by reaching far above his head. At the 

 other extreme, the Mandan Indian in the country of the Red River 

 of the North developed an early maturing race which reached only to 

 the shoulders of the squaw, with tiny ears borne scarcely a foot from 

 the ground on pigmy stalks. 



Storage and shrinkage of ear corn. — While old ear corn rarely 

 contains over 12 per ct. of water, freshly husked corn may contain 36 

 per ct. Ear corn carrying 20 per ct. or more of water will rarely 

 keep if any considerable (juantity is stored together. On twisting 

 such ears they will be found to be loose grained and "sappy." Corn 

 is stored mostly on the husked ear in the North, but in the South the 

 husks are left on the ears because of the weevil, a beetle that lives in 

 the kernels unless they are protected. Shelled corn does not keep 

 well in bulk, especially in the summer, and so corn is held in ear 

 form as long as possible. 



Seventy lbs. of dry dent ear corn of good varieties yields 1 bushel, 

 or 56 lbs., of shelled corn, but in the early fall buyers frequently de- 

 mand 75 or 80 lbs., according to the estimated water content. Flint 

 varieties have a larger proportion of cob to grain than does dent corn. 



Soft corn.— Corn frosted before the grains mature contains too 

 much water for storage or shipment, and is best utilized by immediate 

 feeding. Soft corn has been fed successfully to swine, and for steers 

 a pound of dry matter in soft corn is equal in feeding value to a 

 pound of dry matter in hard corn. 



A late-maturing variety of corn should not be planted in a locality 

 having a short growing season, with the hope of getting a larger yield. 

 The corn will usually not mature, there is great danger of its heating 

 and molding, and the shrinkage is large. As has been shown in 

 Chapter I, the most rapid storage of food in the corn kernels takes 

 place when they are approaching maturity. 



Corn meal; corn chop; corn feed-meaL — The term corn meal, as 

 applied to feeding stuffs, is most correctly used for the entire ground 

 corn grain, from which the bran, or hulls, have not been removed by 

 bolting. In preparing corn for human food the grain is ground 

 coarsely and the fine sif tings and also the bran are removed. The 



