CORN 



Sweet Com is used as a fresh vegetable it is often cooked 

 and served on the cob. In preparing it for canning or 

 drying, it is always out from the cob. Dried Sweet Com, 

 though never an article of commerce, was formerly much 

 used, especially by the rural population. It is gradually 

 being abandoned for canned Corn, for other cereal prep- 

 arations, or for other vegetables. It is practically un- 

 known as human food outside North America. 



Canned Sweet Corn has come to be an important 

 article of domestic commerce in the United States and 

 Canada. A considerable amount goes to Alaska, but at 

 the present time very little is exported. The American 

 Grocer states that the annual Corn pack for the United 

 States and Canada for the year 1898 was 4,398,563 

 cases, each containing 2 dozen 2-pound tins. New York 

 leads with the production of 1,410,569 cases. Maine, 

 Illinois and Iowa follow in rank in the order named. 

 These four states now pack 80 per cent of the Corn 

 which is canned in the United States and Canada. 

 While these figures are not strictly accurate, they are 

 the best obtainable, and give a general idea of the ex- 

 tent and distribution of this industry. No better canned 

 Corn is put on the market than that produced in Maine, 

 where it is largely grown in localities having a season 

 too short to mature the seed. 



As a rule, Sweet Corn is grown for the canneries un- 

 der contract. The canning company supplies the seed, 

 guaranteeing it to be good and true to name. The 

 farmer agrees to grow a certain number of acres and 

 deliver the whole crop to the cannery at a stipulated 

 price. The price now paid in western New York is 

 about $10 per ton of good ears, after deducting the as- 

 certained average percentage of husks and rejected ears. 

 Three tons per acre of good ears is considered a good 

 yield. The ears are snapped from the stalks with the 

 husks on and hauled in deep wagon boxes to the can- 

 neries. The stalks, when preserved either as ensilage 

 or as stover, make excellent fodder. The overripe and 

 inferior ears, being unmarketable, are left on the stalks 

 and materially increase their value as a food for stock. 

 The stover keeps best in loose shocks. It is liable to 

 heat or mold when closely packed in large stacks or 

 bays. 



As a field crop, Corn is grown most extensively on 

 medium heavy loams. It luxuriates in rich, warm soils. 

 The crop rotation should be planned so as to use the 

 coarse manures with the Corn, which is a gross feeder. 

 On the more fertile lands of the central plain, nitroge- 

 nous manures may not always be used to advantage 

 with Corn, but in the eastern and southern states, where 

 the soil has lost more of its original fertility, stable 

 manure may often be used profitably with this crop at 

 the rate of from 8 to 10 cords per acre, or possibly more. 



I^loiving.— In the northern part of the Com belt in 

 the central and western states, that is to say north of 

 the Ohio and Missouri rivers, deep fall plowing of Cora 

 land is generally favored, but in experiments at the 

 Illinois and Indiana experiment stations, the depth of 

 plowing has had little influence on the crop. In sections 

 of the eastern states, shallow plowing late in spring is 

 favored, especially if the land be in sod. In warmer, 

 drier regions, as in parts of Nebraska and Kansas, list- 

 ing has been much practiced on stubble ground. The 

 listing plow, having a double mold-board, throws the 

 soil into alternate furrows and ridges, the furrows being 

 8 or 9 inches deeper than the tops of the ridges. The 

 Corn is planted in the bottom of the furrow, either by 

 means of a 1-horse Corn-drill or by a Corn-drill attach- 

 ment to the lister plow, consisting of a subsoil plow, 

 through the hollow leg of which the Com is dropped. 



Great care should be used to secure seed-corn having 

 high vitality as a precaution against the rotting of the 

 seed in the soil should the season be cold and wet after 

 planting. Select ears for seed as soon as the Com is 

 well ripened. Dry them at once by artificial heat so that 

 the seed may better withstand unfavorable conditions 

 of temperature or moisture. In many localities so-called 

 kiln-dried seed is much in favor. In selecting seed for 

 a field crop, seek systematically for stalks having little 

 or no growth of stools and bearing single large ears. 

 For garden use, seed from more productive stalks is de- 

 sirable, even though the ears be smaller. 



In the north, Sweet Com should be planted as early as 



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375 



can be done without involving great risk of loss from 

 frosts or from rotting of seed in the soil. In New York, 

 field-planting is generally done from May 10 to May 20; 

 in central Minnesota from May 10 to May 30. The 

 ground having been plowed and prepared so as to make 

 a seed-bed of fine, loose soil 3 inches deep, the seed 

 should be planted to a depth of from 1 to 3 inches. The 

 drier and looser the soil the greater should be the depth 

 of planting. In planting small fields, the ground may 

 be marked in check rows so that the hills planted at the 

 intersection of the rows will stand about 3% feet apart 

 each way, and the Com planted by a hand-planter. 



552. Early Marblehead Sweet Corn. 



which drops the desired number of kernels each time it 

 is thrust into the ground. For large fields, the check- 

 row type of planter may be used. These planters drop 

 and cover the seed in hills at uniform distances apart, 

 planting two rows at one trip across the field. Field 

 Corn is often planted in drills by machines adapted to 

 this purpose, but Sweet Corn should be grown under in- 

 tensive culture, and should be in hills, so that the sur- 

 face of the ground may be kept loose and entirely free 

 from weeds. 



Till for the purpose of retaining soil moisture as well 

 as to kill weeds. This requires frequent shallow tillage, 

 pulverizing the surface of the soil so that it will act as 

 a mulch and retard the evaporation of soil moisture. 

 Begin tillage as soon as the planting is done, using the 

 slanting-tooth harrow and Breed's weeder types of im- 

 plements till the Corn is 6 inches high, after which use 

 spring-tooth cultivators or 2-horse cultivators of the 

 type having several shovels on each side. These are 

 preferable to the double-shovel type, formerly much 

 used. The type having revolving disks, which throw the 

 earth towards the Corn, is objectionable because the 

 center of the furrow is left bare of loose soil, which 

 should cover all the ground as a mulch. 



Till at intervals of from 7 to 10 days. At first the cul- 

 tivator may run from 2 inches deep near the plant to 4 

 inches deep midway between the rows. Each successive 

 cultivation should gradually increase in depth between 

 the rows ; throw a half inch or more of earth towards the 

 Corn and cover the weeds. At the last cultivation the 

 cultivator may be kept a little farther from the Corn. 

 It should leave the soil pulverized to a depth of from 

 2 to 3 inches over the entire field. The earlier cultiva- 

 tion may be deepened, if necessary, to kill weeds, even 

 though some Corn roots are severed, but cutting the 

 roots by deep cultivation late in the season is to be es- 

 pecially avoided. Till the soil until the Com gets so 

 large as to prevent the use of a 2-horse cultivator. Oc- 

 casionally a later cultivation, with a 1-horse cultivator, 

 may be necessary if heavy rains leave the surface soil 

 hard and start the weeds. Often catch crops for late 

 pasturage, cover-crops or crops of winter wheat or rye 

 are sown in the cornfield and cultivated in with the 

 last cultivation. The seed is covered deeply by culti- 

 vating it in because the weather is apt to be dry at this 

 period. The lower part of the furrow-slice is thus left 

 compact, furnishing a compact seed-bed, in which small 

 grains delight. 



The cultivation of Sweet Com in the garden should 

 follow the general lines advocated for field culture, but 

 stable manure and commercial fertilizers may be used 

 more liberally. It is well to put a small amount of a com- 



