CHAPTER XLIV 

 CORN 



462. The Corn Plant is an interesting one because it 

 is the most important American crop. It is valued not 

 only as a producer of grain, but forage also. From the 

 grain we get meal, various forms of breakfast foods, 

 starch, glucose made from starch and so largely used in 

 candies and sirups, corn oil largely used in making rubber 

 tires for vehicles, and many other useful products. It 

 is an annual plant that has a reasonably fixed period of 

 growth from germination to maturity, and dies before the 

 growing season ends. Some of the tall growing forms 

 found in tropical America require over 200 days to mature 

 their crop. (See Fig. 188). 



462a. Species and Varieties. Corn includes the following 

 species, distinguished largely by the amount of horny endosperm, 

 in the fruit or grain (^ 18). 



a. Pod Corn has the grains as well as the ears covered by shucks. 

 This is supposed to be the primitive form from which the cultivated 

 varieties have been developed. 



b. Pop Corn is recognized by the smallness of the grains, and 

 the hard horny endosperm extending to the top of the grain. When 

 suddenly heated to high temperatures, the endosperm everts, with 

 a "pop," forming the familiar soft, starchy mass. 



c. Flint Corn has a glossy capped grain, due to the horny endo- 

 sperm extending to the top of the grain. Many varieties of this 

 class mature in 90 to 120 days or less. Because of this early matur- 

 ing habit they are largely used as the staple field corn of the New 

 England States, and in many sections of Canada. They do not 

 yield so well as dent varieties and are being replaced by the develop- 

 ment of early maturing dent varieties. 



d. Dent Corn is the type cultivated almost exclusively in the 



(318) 



