216 



GARDEN FARMING 



and sugar but little or no starch. This accounts for the peculiar 

 appearance and quality of the kernels. 



Cultivation. The cultivation of sweet corn is not limited by 

 climatic conditions as that of field corn is. Field corn can be 

 grown profitably only in those sections which have a frost-free 

 period long enough to bring the grain to full maturity. Sweet 



corn, however, is not 

 grown primarily for the 

 mature grain. Plump, 

 well-developed kernels 

 just entering the dough 

 stage are the most pala- 

 table. For this reason 

 table corn can often be suc- 

 cessfully produced in lo- 

 calities where both sweet 

 corn and field corn would 

 fail to mature. 



Peculiar characteris- 

 tics. The length of time 

 that corn remains in ideal 

 edible condition is deter- 

 mined to a limited extent 

 by the variety, but in a far 

 greater degree by the 

 weather prevailing at the 

 time. A few hours of 

 hot, dry wind will quickly 

 change the ideal condi- 

 tion of the corn. Cool, 

 moist, or cloudy weather 

 will extend the condition for many hours or even for several days. 

 Those parts of the country which have cool, moist, rather than hot, 

 dry conditions during the period of maturation are most desirable 

 for the production of table corn. 



Another characteristic of sweet corn which is not generally 

 understood is the variability of its sugar content. Careful obser- 

 vation has proved that sweet corn loses 50 per cent of its sugar 



FIG. 85. Ideal ears of sweet corn 



