September 29, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



171 



SCIENCE: 



Published by N. D. C. HODGES, S74 Broadway, New York. 



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CORN CANE.* 



BY F. L. STEWART, MDEEYSVILLE. PA. 



The numerous varieties of maize now grown through- 

 out the United States may conveniently be divided into a 

 few general groups, easily distinguishable by the form 

 and qualities of the grain, f 



The most prominent of these are the Dents (white and 

 yellow), Flint, Popcorn and the so-called sweet varieties. 

 Since all sorts, however unlike otherwise, conform to the 

 principle that the arrested development of the seed at 

 the period above indicated, produces sugar accumulation 

 in the cells of the stalk, and since it has been found that 

 the sugar percentage is about the same in all at corres- 

 ponding periods, it follows that the choice of the sugar 

 planter, among the different kinds, must rest upon the 

 most vigorous and well developed of the large-stemmed 

 varieties that will mature their juice in any given locality. 

 The people of ouj: more northern States make a mistake 

 in regarding the hard-glazed or "Flint" varieties of field 

 corn, which are largely grown in that climate, as the best 

 types of the species, naturally, and as bearing the best 

 commercial type of the grain. Our western groAvers 

 have already established a different standard, one which 

 obtains now for American corn throughout the world and 

 comes almost exclusively from the "Dent"' group. 



The best representatives of the species, both as regards 

 vigorous growth and the nutritive qualities of the grain, 

 are undoubtedly the large southern varieties, white and 

 yellow. Maize is naturally a sub-troisical plant, but being 

 an annvial, ripening within a single season, our peculiar 

 summer climate enables us to grow it to perfection under 

 directly sub-tropical conditions; and in proportion as the 

 Dent corn of the west and southwest approaches the 

 southern type more closely in luxuriance of growth and 

 the softer quality of the grain, does it increase in produc- 

 tiveness and nutritive value. 



Among the different races of corn now existing the 

 matured grain varies wonderfully, both in external quali- 

 ties and composition, ranging from the "sweet" corn, with 

 its permanently soft grain, richly charged with readily 

 soluble food materials, on the one hand, to the "Flint" 

 corn of New England on the other, yet the ear of the lat- 

 ter, in its immature stage, is but slightly different in com- 



*Continued from Science, Sept. 22. 



tDr. E. L. Sturtevant, while in charge of the New York Experiment Sta- 

 tion, corrected the nomenclature of mai/,e and originated a system of classifi- 

 cation, deriving the distinctive characters from peculiaritie's in the struc- 

 ture of the kernel or grain. The arrangement seems to be a natural one 

 otherwise, and his definitions of the varieties then existing are very valuable 

 now f.ir purposes of identificati"n. althou^'h some new ones have originated 

 since then. |,N. Y. State Expt. Reports for 1883 and 1884.) 



position and quality from that of the immature sweet 

 corn. 



It is not a little remarkable that this period of arrested 

 development is the only period when the grain of all vari- 

 eties may be said to have a common character. Experi- 

 ments in stock feeding, as well as analytical results, show 

 that it is then also in its most availably nutritious condi- 

 tion. 



This stage now proves, also, to be a turning point in the 

 life and economic use of the individual plant, when an 

 alternative is significantly presented to the choice of the 

 grower. The prompt separation of the ear at this stage 

 conditions the full develoj)ment of the sugar and the pro- 

 longed existence of the jslant. But if the grain be allowed 

 to glaze nothing can avert the almost immediate death 

 of the plant and, excepting the seed, the destruction of 

 the whole organized structure. 



In the former case the result is equally certain and ab- 

 solute. The saccharine development may be depended 

 upon to go on until it has reached its limit, and it is as 

 fixed and constant an attribute of the whole species as it is 

 in the maturing joints of the sugar cane itself. 



It remains for me only to indicate, in the briefest way 

 possible, what is necessary now, practically, to make sugar 

 manufacture a success from this new source. 



First in importance is the answer to the question what 

 varieties to plant that are best for this use. No one sort 

 can be named which is equally well adapted for all locali- 

 ties, even in the main central corn belt of the United 

 States. Everywhere in that region the period of juice- 

 ripening is naturally brought to an end only by the frosts. 

 Corn cane is nearly as sensitive to severe cold as the 

 sugar cane, and throughout that region generally the aim 

 should be to plant such varieties as will develojD the milky 

 condition of the grain by the 20th of August, so as to in- 

 sure a period of two weeks for sugar accumulation by the 

 first week in September, when the manufacturing season 

 for the main crop would regiilarly begin. The following 

 well-known sorts sufficiently matured their juice last sea- 

 son early in September, and most of them can be recom- 

 mended for this use from Ohio westward and southward, 

 ranking them in that region in the order named: 



1. Large Southern White or Virginia fodder corn. 



2. Burpee's Golden Beauty, a highly improved and well 

 established variety of the yellow Dent. 



3. Chester County Mammoth. 



4. Kansas Yellow Dent. 



5. Early Mastodon Dent. 



The first named is the best ensilage corn grown, and 

 wherever it will mature its ears to the roasting ear condi- 

 tion in August it will have the preference in sugar manu- 

 facture on account of its great productiveness and the 

 richness of its juice. Golden Beauty has been tested 

 from the outset of these experiments in 1884, and with 

 the very best results. Like all the rest named, its stems 

 are very robust, well developed stalks when trimmed 

 weighing three pounds. 



After these, biit not ranking with them at all in pro- 

 ductiveness, Stowell's Evergreen-Egyptian and Mammoth 

 Sugar, among the sweet corn group, may be named. Their 

 juice is not superior to that of field corn in any quality. 

 I have no question that by selection and inter-crossing a 

 variety of sweet corn will yet be produced which will be as 

 productive of grain for cauners' use as any that we now 

 have and equal to the field varieties in robust stem- 

 growth. For the sugar crop, no special preparation of 

 the soil is needed other than is commonly required to pro- 

 duce a heavy crop of field corn. The seed should be 

 sown in drills three and a half or four- feet apart, and 

 thickly enough for the plants to stand about ten inches 

 apart in the row. 



