CHAPTER XVIII 



SWEET CORN. ORE A. MAETYNIA 



THE plants mentioned above are all warm- weather 

 crops ; they are annuals, or grown as such, and they are 

 cultivated for their immature fruits; they should have 

 quick soil ; usually they are not transplanted ; other than 

 good tillage, no special treatment is required. 



Corn, okra and martynia are culturally somewhat 

 related, but they have little else in common. They are 

 placed together here because none of them fits well into 

 the other groups. 



SWEET CORN 



As a garden or horticultural crop, sweet corn or 

 sugar corn is the only kind of corn that need be con- 

 sidered here. It is grown for the immature ears, which 

 are eaten when the grains are yet soft. Although prac- 

 tically unknown in other parts of the world, it is a 

 very important product in North America. Its import- 

 ance has greatly increased in recent years because it is 

 extensively canned. It is now one of the most important 

 of horticultural field crops in many parts of the country. 

 Sweet corn is not grown in the southern states; or if it 

 is, the seed is renewed every year from the North. It 

 holds its peculiar attributes only in the short, sharp 

 seasons of the northern states and parts of Canada. 



(423) 



