SWEET CORN 217 



content within the first four hours after it has been removed from 

 the stalk. This accounts for the poor quality of all corn purchased 

 in the market and of that served at restaurants and hotels. Canners 

 have not been aware of this peculiarity of corn, at least none have 

 thus far taken advantage of it to produce a brand par excellence. 

 With the modern methods of canning there is no reason why a 

 brand far superior to the commercial product now upon the market 

 should not be offered. The person who wishes table corn par ex- 

 cellence should have his own garden patch and gather the corn 

 less than an hour before it is to go into the pot. 



Table corn was formerly cut from the cob when in perfect 

 edible condition and dried by artificial heat. This homely house- 

 hold practice provided a winter vegetable considered by many to 

 be superior to canned corn. The chief objection to this is its dark 

 color, but it invariably has the quality of sweetness not always 

 possessed by the canned product. 



Influence of climate. Sweet corn like field corn is influenced 

 in size of stalk and time of maturity by climatic conditions, and 

 these variations are transmitted to the succeeding crops through 

 the seed. It is desirable, therefore, that those varieties in which 

 earliness is the important characteristic should be grown as far 

 north as they can be fully ripened and cured. 



The question of the influence of climate on the sugar content 

 of sweet corn is an open one. New England growers maintain 

 that sweeter corn can be produced from Northern-grown seed 

 than from Southern-grown. On the other hand, Maryland packers 

 insist that best results come from the use of seed grown in the 

 immediate vicinity. Their contentions are borne out by the results 

 of careful experiments covering a period of years, the conclusions 

 being that seed corn grown in any locality for a series of years 

 gives better results in that locality than seed of the same variety 

 equally well grown in any other locality. 



Gardeners in general have a prejudice against Western-grown 

 seed corn, which seems to be justified by a number of reasons. 

 In fact, the prejudice is so firmly grounded that it has influenced 

 the commercial value of the seed corn. The difference between 

 corn produced from Eastern-grown seed and that produced from 

 Western-grown seed under Eastern conditions is more apparent 



