26 GARDENING WITH BRAINS '^ 



you must have your own garden! Sweet com, 

 too, is — let me say it again — more sweet and 

 flavorsome raw than cooked — that is, if eaten at 

 once. Still, I should hate to give up the boiled 

 or roasted corn with sweet butter and salt. And 

 shall I tell you something — something that will 

 make you as happy as a stick of candy did when 

 you were a little boy or girl? 



You have, of course (when nobody was look- 

 ing), after biting the kernels off an ear of com, 

 taken the cob between your teeth, closed your 

 lips tightly on it, and sucked and sucked and 

 sucked. Sugar cane isn't sweeter, nor is maple 

 sap. But what I think you do not know is 

 that the flavor of no two cobs is exactly alike. 

 I made sure of this years ago. We usually can 

 about one hundred and fifty ears at once, and 

 when the com has been cut off and the cobs 

 put into tin pails for the pigs, I get ahead of 

 them by sucking two or three dozens of the 

 cobs. It's "linked sweetness long drawn out,'* 

 I assure you, and the subtle nuances in the 

 flavor are astonishing. * 



FRAGRANT LUSCIOUS MELONS 



Sweeter than the sweetest com, raw or 

 cooked, is the melon, particularly the canta- 



* Plant breeders, professional or amateur, could and should improve 

 the flavor of the best com by studying these nuances, and selecting 

 for the next crop those ears which are sweetest. This can be easily 

 done by putting a numbered tag on each ear you suck and a tag with 

 the same number on the second ear on the same stalk. 



