The Old and the New in Corn Culture. 15 



ports heights of stalks varying from 18 inches for Golden 

 Thumb pop corn to 22.25 feet for corn in Tennessee, and also 

 reports individual ears with rows of kernels varying from 

 4 to 48. Variations in color are almost unlimited. Mont- 

 gomery states that there are now probably 1,000 named 

 varieties of corn in the United States, three-fourths of which 

 have been developed since 1840. In 1898 Sturtevant listed 

 507 varieties. 



Corn has shown especial adaptability to differences in 

 length of seasons, and at the present time we find varieties 

 maturing in 80 days in the North and other varieties requir- 

 ing 150 days or more in the South. The types, consisting of 

 pop, flint, flour, dent, sweet, and pod corns, indicate great 

 changes in centuries of adaptation. In addition to their nat- 

 ural variations, but few plants in America have received more 

 attention at the hands of the plant breeder than corn. 



The plant breeder has found the plant to be very mobile, 

 responding readily to selection. Proof of this is shown by 

 the fact that selection has been found to influence the fol- 

 lowing characters : Shape of ear, height of ear, percentage of 

 protein, percentage of oil, type of kernel, type of ear, width of 

 leaves, color of kernel, size of cob, and many other char- 

 acteristics. Through hybridization, valuable characters of 

 different varieties have been brought together. 



CORN AND THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY. 



Corn played a vital part in the European conflict. In re- 

 sponse to widespread appeals, the acreage in 1917 was in- 

 creased more than 10 per cent compared with 1916 and ap- 

 proximated 117,000,000 acres. The crop of 3,065,000,000 

 bushels was next to the largest ever harvested. If this 

 crop had been loaded on wagons, each containing 50 bushels 

 and allowing 20 feet of space for each wagon, these wagons 

 placed end to end would make a line long enough to en- 

 circle the globe 9J times. 



The importance of corn in the agriculture of the United 

 States is well shown by the fact that in the decade 1908 

 to 1917 the acreage devoted to corn in this country was 

 4.8 per cent greater than the combined acreage of the crops 

 of wheat, oats, barley, rye, rice, buckwheat, and flax. The 

 value of the corn crop for the same period was 24.3 per 



