sp ° 7 ] Garden, Field, and Forest of the Nation. 65 
per cent. Corn is also bred for a large amount of starch, 
and similarly useful results follow. 
The breeding of corn has gone to yet another extreme, the 
breeder having succeeded in doing away almost entirely with 
the grain and producing a large, firm cob. These cobs, that 
are produced on some of the poorest land in Missouri, are 
used for making the corn-cob pipe, and the introduction of 
the Collier corn into that district has been a Godsend to the 
poorest farmers with the poorest lands in the State. A very 
similar result has recently been obtained in Illinois, where a 
large firm cob with an insignificant grain has been produced 
on a soil of nearly pure siliceous sand. It has been found 
that the pith of the corn cob is a most valuable substance for 
calking ships and stopping leaks, the pith absorbing water 
and swelling to fill the crevice, and corns have been produced 
with a maximum of pith in the cob. 
The corn of our mountain districts is rich in fat, and there 
too is the only portion of the South where we may raise sugar 
corn with success. The longer season in the lowlands admits 
of the elaboration of the fats into proteids. It is interesting 
to note in this connection that the corn of our mountains and 
thecornof the north are rich in heat producing elements, while 
these are almost entirely wanting in Southern varieties of corn, 
the long growing season admitting of the change of the sugars 
and fats into proteids. We cannot even raise sugar corn in our 
coastal plain from the seed of sugar corn grown there, but 
must get our seed each season from a colder region. The 
same is true with regard to the seeds of cabbage grown in 
the South except in the mountain region. 
The changes in the character of corn are in no small meas- 
ure the work of members of the corn-breeders’ association, 
and show what may be accomplished through co-operation 
among farmers. This association has been working to make 
corn a complete ration. Here in the South, Williamson has 
greatly improved corn both as to quality and yield per acre, 
by a method peculiarly his own. The seed has been planted 
