130 



THE CANADIAN H0BTICULTURI8T. 



moth Early, Triumph, Potter's Excel- 

 sior, Livingston's Evergreen, Pee and 

 Kay, Early Minnesota, Moore's Early 

 Concord, 



All of these nineteen kinds were 

 planted from 6th to loth June — most 

 of them on the 10th — except Cory and 

 Marblehead Eai-ly, which were planted 

 mainly on May 20th for early mai'ket 

 purposes, but some rows of these were 

 also put in at the same time as the 

 other varieties, for purposes of com- 

 parison. 



The soil was a rather poor, sandy 

 loam, and very little manui-e was ap- 

 plied ; but the cultivation was fair to 

 good, with all except the " Self Husk- 

 ing," Henderson's Sugar," and, I think, 

 " Amber Cream." These got put on 

 new land which grew up so fast with 

 weeds that they had to be left out of 

 the race. 



Of the remaining sixteen varieties I 

 got such a good test that I consider I 

 learned all I want to know about all of 

 them except three or four of the earli- 

 est. 



First of all, to mature for boiling, 

 was the Cory. Planted May 20th, it 

 was ready to market early in August, 

 which, for this lake climate, we con- 

 sider remarkably quick growth. A few 

 days after, the Marblehead Early came 

 in. It seems to be nearly or quite as 

 large as the Cory. They both have the 

 same fault of redness of cob and fre- 

 quent redness of grain ; and for all 

 practical purposes these two sorts are 

 almost identical, with the exception of 

 the extra earliness of the Cory, whicli 

 is a most important difference ! Soon 

 after the Marblehead, came, of course, 

 the Early Minnesota with its pretty 

 little white cob. This point is a de- 

 cided merit, but it fails to make up for 

 the advantage over it gained by the 

 Cory, or even the Marblehead, by being 

 in the market a week or two sooner. 

 People will grumble at the Cory's red 



cob, but they are not willing to wait 

 for the white, and so they buy the Cory 

 and grumble, and buy again — at a good 

 round price too : and when the pretty 

 little Minnesota does come fairly in the 

 price is down. For a limited quantity, 

 the Cory probably pays the best of any 

 corn that grows. 



About the time the Minnesota is 

 faii-ly under way, we come chuckling 

 along with the crop of Perry's Hybird. 

 The appeai'ance of this sort is not to be 

 mistaken. Stalk and leaf and ear-cover- 

 ings are a dull, greenish-red, which 

 seems rather uninviting. I know of no 

 other variety that looks like it. But 

 the proof of the corn is in the ear, and 

 the ear of the Perry's Hybrid with me 

 was almost fully up to the size of the 

 Mammoth varieties. If both had been 

 gi'own on rich soil, no doubt the Mar- 

 blehead Mammoth, Livingstone's Ever- 

 green, &c., would have been consider- 

 ably larger ; bnt on the poorish, sandy 

 soil mentioned the Perry seemed about 

 equal. The cob of this vai'iety is rather 

 red also ; but it has not the deep red 

 which stains the water in cooking and 

 blackens the grain. Particular in- 

 quiries of my men who did the peddling, 

 fail to show a single case of customei'S 

 grumbling at the red cob of the Perry's 

 Hybrid. 



Shaker's Early, Boston Mai'ket and 

 Moore's Early Concord came in close 

 behind the Perr3^ The only one that 

 I found to compare at all with Perry 

 was the Shaker's Early — the broad- 

 grained variety, I think. The ear was 

 almost as large, so near it in fact that 

 we could scarcely see the difference, and 

 the cob is white. But the slight differ- 

 ence in earliness tips the balance, in my 

 estimation, in favour of Perry's Hybrid. 

 I only grew a couple of short rows of 

 Shaker's. I grew the Perry in quantity 

 for market • hence, I have confidence 

 in the Perry which I fail to have in the 

 other, and this is intensified from the 



