418 



MAIZE 



MAEJi 



fifty pounds daily may be regarded as the maximum 

 ration of silags for a cow, and this amount is rather 

 more than is usually fed. The writer thinks that 

 a silo filled with good corn in the month of Sep- 

 tember offers by far the most satisfactory solution 

 of the problem of feeding a cow during the months 

 of summer drought. If the dairyman has in mind 

 some summer feeding to supplement the pastures 

 (and he should expect to do this to some extent), 

 he will need about five tons of silo capacity for 

 each cow. The tables of capacity provided by 

 manufacturers are fairly dependable. Under ordi- 

 nary field conditions, the yield of silage will range 

 from eight to twenty tons . per acre. Silage may 

 make up the larger part of the roughage, but some 

 hay should be provided in addition. It is now an 

 established fact that liberal rations of good silage 

 are not incompatible with the health of the herd 

 and with milk of the very highest standard of 

 purity and flavor. It is not easy to over-emphasize 

 the usefulness, not to say the virtual necessity, of 

 the silo in successful dairying. Its greatest advan- 

 tage in feeding lies not in the fact that animals 

 do better on silage than on dry corn fodder, but 

 more especially in the saving of labor. The silo 

 ranks with the centrifugal separator in its effect 

 on dairying. 



Popcorn. Zea (Mays) everta. Graminece. Figs. 

 642, 643. 



By /. G. Curtis. 



The popcorns are a special group of flint corns 

 used for "popping," as the name suggests, for eat- 

 ing out of hand or in confections. They are char- 

 acterized by the small size of the kernels and their 

 excessive hardness, and by the excessive proportion 

 of the corneous endosperm or horny substance con- 

 tained in the kernels, which in turn contains a 

 large percentage of moisture and gives the kernels 

 the property of popping or turning almost com- 

 pletely inside out on the application of heat. In 

 structure and composition popcorn varies but little 

 from ordinary flint and dent corns, but since it 

 yields so much less it is never grown for market 

 as a stock-food. The stalks of popcorn are con- 

 siderably smaller than those of field corn and vary 

 in height from four to twelve feet, with a general 

 average of about eight feet. In color they are 

 usually rather lighter green than the flint corns, 

 but may vary through all the shades of green, and 

 even to a very dark red in some instances. 



The actual popping of the kernels has been 

 shown to be due to the expansion of moisture in 

 the starch-cells, the application of heat converting 

 the moisture into steam, making the cell-walls give 

 way and causing an explosion with sufficient force 

 to alter the entire form and texture of the kernel. 



The value of popcorn lies almost wholly in its 

 tendency to pop completely into a large, irregular, 

 flaky mass, since this is the only form in which it 

 has a sufficient value as an edible product to make 

 it worthy of cultivation. While in popping it loses 

 in weight about 10 per cent, due to the evaporation 

 of moisture by the heat employed, it should in- 



crease in bulk in the ratio of at least sixteen to 

 one, and under the best conditions as high as 

 twenty to one. There are several factors which 

 control this result, such as the even application of 

 heat and the condition of the corn. It may be too 

 damp or too dry for best results, and since the 

 moisture content is high when the corn is harvested, 

 it is usually held over one season before marketing. 



Distribution. 



Popcorn is grown successfully throughout the 

 northern half of the United States wherever other 

 corn can be grown, and to a small extent on the 

 heavier soils of the Piedmont section of the south- 

 ern states. However, there has been a wide change 

 in the methods of production within the last quar- 

 ter-century, and whereas it was at one time planted 

 in nearly every garden throughout New York and 

 the New England states, it has gradually come to 

 be a sort of special farm crop grown in a com- 

 mercial way by men who have found it profitable 

 and have made the growing, handling and market- 

 ing of the crop a special study. This change is also 

 coincident with the development of certain parts 

 of the Middle West which, because of soil and cli- 

 matic conditions, have proved especially adapted to 

 the growth of the crop. The great bulk of the crop 

 is now grown in Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin 

 and Nebraska. 



Some idea of the magnitude which the business 

 has attained in certain favored localities can be 

 gained from the statement that from one shipping 

 point in Iowa in 1905 there were shipped more than 

 three hundred car-loads of popcorn. 



Varieties. 



There are about twenty-five different varieties 

 of popcorn, but these are simply variations of the 

 two distinct types or classes known as rice corn 

 and pearl corn. (Fig. 643.) The rice corn has kernels 

 more or less pointed, with the outer coat, where 



Fig. 642. Three stages in the possible development of rice 

 popcorn from the wild Mexican podcorn. A, Wild Mexi- 

 can podcorn; B, stage of partial development* 0, modem 

 white rice popcorn. 



the silks were attached, continued into a sort of 

 spine, which may either stand almost erect or may 

 be depressed by the crowding of the husk on the 

 ear. The pearl com has kernels rounded or flattened 

 over the top and very smooth, the point of the 

 attachment of the silk being lower down on the 

 same side of the kernel as the germ. These two 



