Old Colony Sweet Coi'n, its Culture, tSf'c. 531 



In 1849, 1 had the satisfaction of partaking of an excellent 

 and new variety of Sweet corn, with sixteen and eighteen 

 rows upon an ear! and in the autumn, gathered for seed 

 several ears of similar size, without any indication upon 

 them of the traces of the Southern White, except in the 

 unusual size and number of the kernels. The specimens 

 which received this year the commendation of the Commit- 

 tee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, were of the 

 second planting, (an uninvited horse having regaled himself 

 upon the first.) and contained each but fourteen rows. I 

 herewith send you a couple of specimens of sixteen each ; 

 and reserve some for myself of even larger pretensions, one 

 of which measures eight inches and one eighth in circum- 

 ference, and contains twenty rows. 



The quality may be satisfactorily tested in the matured 

 state ; and will not be found in sweetness inferior to any, I 

 think. The stalks, as you had the opportunity of seeing, 

 were very large, averaging from ten to twelve feet inheighth, 

 of corresponding circumference. They are also furnished 

 with brace roots, (never, I believe, found upon Sweet corn,) 

 and the pistils are invariably green, and not pink, as in the 

 Southern White. Its size seems to require a long season, 

 which will make it late ; but I have given it no fair trial as 

 to earliness. In productiveness, it will defy all table-corn 

 with which I am acquainted ; and had the season permitted, 

 I would have shown you a single stalk, planted after the 

 middle of June, having upon it six ears, in various stages of 

 growth ; but the frost came too soon, my garden having 

 been touched by the earliest. Its heighth, and the weight 

 of the ears, which were not formed this year at less than 

 four or five feet from the ground, — a circumstance of some 

 importance to those who, for neighborly regard, unhappily 

 keep fowls which they happily do not oion, — indicate the 

 effect of high winds in exposed situations unless properly 

 hilled. 



I have made this communication unwittingly long, but 

 you must employ your editorial scissors at will. The pro- 

 duction may be entitled to some more notice as being one of 



