286 MAINE STATE COLLEGE 



LOSS OF FOOD AND MANURIAL VALUE IN SELLING 

 SWEET CORN. 



J. M. Bartlett. 

 Sweet corn is now so important a crop throughout the State 

 that it is believed that it may very properly become a subject of 

 investigation and experiment. A beginning has been made in 

 this direction the pa^st season, the chief object of the work being 

 to get some idea of the composition of the sweet corn plant and 

 of the amount of fertilizing material taken up by the crops, and 

 also to learn something of its distribution through the different 

 parts of the plant. In this way we shall become able to estimate 

 the loss occassioned to the land by the sale of the kernel, and the 

 value of the stalks and the waste products (husks and cobs) for 

 food and manure. Four lots of corn were planted, and owing to 

 a part of it failing to grow the amount of fertilizing material 

 taken from a given area of land cannot be stated ; but the relation 

 weights, calculated to water-free substance of stalks, husks, ker- 

 nel and cobs are shown in table No. 1 below, also the per cent, 

 of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash they contain. From 

 these figures the distribution of manurial ingredients can be early 

 estimated. It can be seen that the kernel contains only about 21 

 per cent, of the total phosphoric acid, 22 per cent, of the potash 

 and 41 per cent, of the nitrogen. Consequently if the stalks, 

 husks and cobs are returned to the farm, quite a large percentage 

 of the fertililzing ingredients is saved. Of the total dry matter 

 in the plant the kernels contained about 15 per cent. In table 

 No. 2 is given the total moisture of the undried stalks, husks, 

 kernels and cobs, and their approximate analysis calculated on a 

 water-free basis. Other experiments are to be carried on in 1890 

 in which the food value of the plant and its different parts will be 

 given more attention. 



