230 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



May, 1907 



variety, we have a white cob and grain, 

 slightly larger ear and a little later season. 



Golden Bantam is a very distinct variety, 

 is highly esteemed for earliness and excellent 

 quality. In the cool North, it is an extra 

 early but in the vicinity of Philadelphia it 

 is a second early in season. The plants are 

 quite hardy in growth, with stalks about four 

 feet in height, furnished with two ears to a 

 stalk. The ears are from five to six inches 

 long, slender in form, with eight rows of 

 broad, creamy-yellow grains, very rich in 

 flavor. It is tender and juicy if gathered 

 at the proper stage. Many of the New 

 England gardeners esteem this variety so 

 highly that they use it for their entire summer 

 supply by making repeated plantings for 

 succession at intervals of one week, or not 

 over ten days apart. 



SECOND EARLIES AND MID-SEASON VARIETIES 



Early Cosmopolitan, Early Champion 

 and Early Metropolitan come in immediately 

 after the Early Cory or about five days later. 

 These are of stronger growth with stout 

 stalks five to six feet in height, and large 

 broad leaves. They produce two rather 

 large ears to a stalk, with ten to twelve rows 

 of fairly large grains. The seed is hard and 

 firm, being only slightly shrivelled when dry 

 and admits of early planting, but the quality 

 is only fair and not distinctly sweet, even 

 when gathered while the grains are still 

 tender and juicy. It is quite probable that 

 these varieties owe their vigorous growth, 

 size of ear, and hardiness to a cross between 

 the Adams type and some one of the true 

 sugar corns. 



Crosby's Early Twelve-Rowed. This is 



Gather the ears just before cooking or early in the 

 morning and keep in a cool place 



an old-time favorite which I have been 

 planting for nearly thirty years and still 

 consider it one of the best early sugar corns. 

 It comes a week later than the Cory, and 

 when ready for the table, ends the usefulness 

 of the extra earlies, as it is greatly superior 

 in flavor. The stalks are slender, about 

 five feet in height, and set two medium- 

 sized ears. The ears are six to seven inches 

 long, not very thick, and have twelve rows of 

 medium-sized grains, tender, juicy and sweet 

 in flavor. It is a true "sugar" corn, of just 

 the right size to serve on the cob and of very 

 attractive appearance. 



Black Mexican is a very distinct variety 

 of about the same season, or a little later, 

 than the Crosby and is very highly esteemed 

 for sweetness in some sections. The stalks 

 grow five feet in height, with ears seven to 

 eight inches in length. The ears have a 

 slender cob and eight rows of broad grains, 

 of a creamy color when at the proper stage 

 for the table, but the tips of the grains are 

 more or less shaded with reddish violet, 

 changing to dark purplish-black when the 

 seed is fully ripened. While this variety 

 has a good reputation for sweetness, I find 

 that in our hot summer season the grains 

 quickly become dry and floury in taste unless 

 gathered at a very early stage of develop- 

 ment, indicating a field-corn parentage. 



Perry's Hybrid is a very excellent sweet- 

 flavored corn with larger ears and a little 

 later season than the Crosby. The ears 

 are set rather low on the stalk and both ears 

 and grains are of good size. Mainly planted 

 in the cooler Northern sections. 



Potter's Excelsior, a medium-sized ear 

 and mid-season in development. The flavor 

 of this variety is excellent and it has the pe- 

 culiarity of producing a percentage of reddish- 

 colored stalks. A number of excellent sorts 

 have been developed and introduced by 

 making selections from these red-stalked 

 plants, such as Honey Dew, etc., all of which 

 were especially good in flavor when sent out, 

 but all of which deteriorate and run out when 

 grown on a large, commercial scale. The 

 best of these red-stalked corns was the 

 Ruby, in which the stalks, leaves, husks, and 

 tassels were a rich purplish red, and while 

 the young grains were pearly white at the 

 edible stage, the water in which the ears were 

 boiled became bright red dye from the color- 

 ing extracted from the cobs while boiling. 

 This was one of the sweetest corns I have 

 ever eaten, but it was so difficult to maintain 

 a pure strain that its cultivation was 

 abandoned. 



Early Mammoth is a large, thick-eared, 

 mid-season sort of good growth. The 

 quality is good but the ear too large and 

 heavy for serving on the cob, and only 

 attractive to those who wish to get the most 

 for their money when buying by the dozen 

 ears on the market. 



Early Evergreen is an earlier, smaller- 

 eared selection of Stowell's Evergreen, with 

 a good-sized, but not overly hick, ear of 

 good quality. It fills in the season between 

 Crosby and the regular Stowell very satis- 

 factorily, where a number of varieties are 



planted at one time for succession, in pref- 

 erence to more numerous plantings of a 

 single variety. 



Shoe Peg, or Ne Plus Ultra, a very distinct, 

 small-eared variety of exceptionally sweet, 

 rich flavor. The stalks produce four ears 

 to a stalk which are ready in pairs — that is, 

 two of the ears become ready for use several 

 days before the second pair. Usually the 

 lower ears are the earliest, but sometimes the 

 two middle ears are ready first. These ears 

 are only five to six inches long, are quite 

 slender and the small, slender, deep grains 

 are crowded very closely together on the ear 

 and not arranged in regular, even-numbered 

 rows as with other corns. 



Each ear has, when young, a very large 

 tuft of reddish silk which turns dark brown 

 when ready for use, so that the proper stage 

 for gathering the ears can readily be told 

 with a little experience without opening the 

 husk. The only objections to this very 

 excellent corn lie in the very small size of the 

 ear (a point of favor with many who like to 

 eat corn from the cob) and in the fact that 

 when the grains are a little old, the skin of 

 the deep, slender grains becomes tough and 

 finds lodgment between the teeth, and as 

 the grains are so small and not in regular 

 rows, they cannot readily be slit, or scored, 

 with a knife before eating, which would 

 obviate this difficulty. 



LATE, OR MAIN CROP, VARIETIES 



White Evergreen, a special strain of the 

 well-known Stowell's Evergreen established 

 by a number of years' selection, with a view 

 of securing a grain of the purest whiteness 

 for canning purposes, as the original Stowell 

 has a yellowish tinge to the grains when 

 cooked in the cans in the large commercial 

 canneries. In the process of selection, this 

 corn has become slightly dwarfer in growth 



Golden Bantam, yellow. This variety vies with Peep 

 o' Day (or the record for earliness 



