DESCRIPTIONS OF VARIETIES 



77 



stalk. Naturally, such a variety was of value only to 

 home gardeners. 



Golden Age, Lord's. Refs. 348, 497. Illus. 25. 



For 4 years, 1929 to 1932, this was offered by Francis 

 C. Stokes & Co. of Philadelphia, as a highly productive 

 variety earlier than Golden Bantam. Evidently, from 

 the appearance of the dry ear, it is a hybrid stock of 

 Golden Bantam and Dighton parentage. James E. 

 Lord of Stonington, Connecticut, was the originator 

 and for 8 years prior to its introduction in 1929 by 

 Stokes used the strain successfully to produce his earliest 

 market corn. 



Edible ears were produced at Geneva in 76 days; 

 2 days earlier than Golden Bantam and 4 days later 

 than Golden Sunshine. The plants are shorter and 

 more slender than those of Golden Bantam, while the 

 tassels are shorter and with fewer laterals. The ears 

 are usually 10-rowed, with kernels much more narrow 

 than those of Bantam. In the dry stage the kernels 

 assume a bronze tinge unlike any other yellow variety. 



Plant moderately short, 4-}£-5 feet, stalks slender and moder- 

 ately straight: nodes 6-7, usually slightly exposed, not prominent. 

 Tillers few to none. Leaves short and moderately broad, 22-25 x 

 3'_>-4 inches; sheath equal to and occasionally shorter than inter- 

 node. Tassel short and slender, 12-15 inches; terminal spike erect: 

 lateral spikelets nearly erect, few, short, and not crowded; bracts and 

 anthers variable in color; 56-57 days to anthesis. 



Ears borne at 3rd and 4th nodes, one and occasionally two 

 ears per stalk. Shank long and slender, 3-6 inches. Husk leaves 

 few and short; husks moderately few, light, short and loosely 

 WTapped. Husked ear moderately short and slender, 6—7 x IJ4-IJ2 

 inches, moderately tapering, partly cylindrical; tip sharply conical; 

 rows 8-10, straight, quite noticeably paired, not crowded around 

 the cob, furrows deep and narrow when present. 



Kernels at milk stage yellow, small and shallow; at dry stage 

 reddish yellow, equal in width and length, .99 x .98 x .38 cm. (128 

 seeds per oz. : short broad oval, almost square in shape; crown 

 slightly rounded: surface sparsely and very shallowly wrinkled; 

 set tightly on cob. 



Golden Alpha. Ref. 476. 



This new variety, introduced in 1932, is as yet 

 untried in the gardens and markets of most of the 

 United States. C. S. Clark 85 Sons, Wakeman, Ohio, 

 corn seed growers since 1878, have for some time been 

 working to produce better varieties of yellow corns. 

 C. A. Barden of that firm crossed Alpha with his earlier 

 introduction, Barden's Wonder Bantam, to combine 

 earliness and quality. The variety which was created 

 and selected was introduced as the trend toward yellow 

 sweet corn was very definite and also as the new and 

 larger hybrid inbreds were becoming more popular. 



Edible ears were produced in about 74 to 76 days 

 at Geneva, which was 3 to 4 days earlier than Golden 

 Bantam and about the same number of days later than 

 Golden Sunshine. The plants are more stocky and 

 bear their ears higher up on the plant than does Golden 

 Bantam. 



Plant medium heigkt, 4jj— 5 feet; stalks sturdy and vigorous; 

 tillers many, clightly shorter than antral stalk. Ears borne at 

 4th and 5th nodes: husks medium in number and moderately 

 tight wrapped. Husked ears medium long and moderately slender, 

 6-8 x 1 J j-1 . inches, nearly cylindrical, slightly tapering at apex; 

 rows uniformly somewhat open at the base. Kernels at milk stage 



yellow, medium size, shallow; at dry stage dull amber yellow, wider 

 than long; broad ovate in shape; crown decidedly rounded, nearly 

 semi-circular. 



Golden Bantam. Refs. 28, 56, 79, 103, 124, 127, 132, 



136, 180, 205, 238, 248, 295, 298, 335, 344, 345, 



347, 348, 365, 384, 399, 403, 406, 413, 460, 467, 



480, 490, 493, 499, 525, 546, 564. Syns. Beauty 



Bantam, Gold Medal, Golden Glory, Golden 



West, Pure Gold, Sweet Bantam. Illus. 25, 27. 



Golden Bantam was introduced by W. Atlee 



Burpee Company in 1902. This is the best and most 



favorably known of all the yellow varieties of sweet 



corn. The type represented here has been in common 



cultivation in the United States for perhaps 70 years 



and was known at various times as Golden, Golden 



Sweet, Golden Sugar, Golden Nugget, etc., but it 



remained for the late W. Atlee Burpee to popularize it 



under the name Golden Bantam. The following is an 



excerpt from the Boston Transcript of August, 1926: 



" More than fifty years ago Hovey 8b Company, 

 seed merchants of Boston, sold to all comers their 

 Golden Sweet, a variety which was the direct progenitor 

 of the modern Golden Bantam. It is related that one 

 of their customers, a very enthusiastic amateur gardener, 

 grew the Golden Sweet for many years, selecting and 

 refining the gold until he had produced the substantial 

 improvements which characterize the newer variety. 

 When this old gentleman died his contribution to a 

 higher civilization was sold to one of the big seedsmen. 



" This dealer grew a large stock of it, rechristened 

 it and offered it to the public in 1902. In the twenty- 

 four years since then it has made more friends than 

 anyone else could make outside the movies. Which 

 proves that popularity does sometimes follow real 

 merit." 



Accurate information which will place definitely 

 the history of most of our old varieties is lacking. As in 

 all varieties the evidence available is related to show 

 the most probable origin and the progress of the variety, 

 In 1898, E. L. Coy of Washington County, New York, 

 a veteran seed grower and expert on potato varieties, 

 when visiting a cousin at Greenfield, Massachusetts, 

 was served sweet corn at dinner. He was very much 

 impressed by the quality of the corn and upon investiga- 

 tion learned that it had come from the garden of J. G. 

 Pickett. The variety had come to Mr. Pickett upon 

 the death of an old gentleman " who had a fancy for 

 furnishing his friends with some choice early corn long 

 before they had thought of having any ripe enough for 

 the table, — but he would never let any of them have 

 any to plant." 



In the spring of 1900, Mr. Coy secured from Mr. 

 Pickett all the seed he could spare (less than 2 quarts) 

 and sent it to Mr. Burpee with this notation, " you now 

 own the very sweetest and richest corn ever known." 

 After 2 years' trial the career of Golden Bantam was 

 launched. At first its progress was slow for it was a 

 yellow corn and therefore had much adverse popular 

 opinion to overcome. Henry A. Dreer wrote in 1906, 

 " when one gets the sweet delicious taste, the color of 

 the grains is forgotten." 



Edible ears were produced at Geneva in 78 days, 



