STOKES SEED FARMS COMPANY 



MOORESTOWN 



NEW JERSEY 



Are Your Vegetables Fresh When They 

 Come To the Table? 



^5 



ON the following page will be found a suggested list of home garden varieties of vegetables. These have been 

 selected because of their delicious eating qualities. However, there are two other factors necessary before this 

 end is reached. In addition, therefore, to growing proper varieties, the plants must have an even uninterrupted 

 growth, which may be assured by normal temperatures, regular cultivation and the proper amount of moisture. After 

 all these, there is one vitally important factor, which is too often neglected. In fact, if it could be brought down to 

 a minimum, the popularity of vegetables would increase manyfold. We refer to the time element between picking and 

 cooking, as it has to do with the loss in sugar content. Messrs. Straughn & Church have published, through the 

 Bureau of Chemistry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, very definite data, which in part has to do with the 

 subject relating to sweet corn. Professor Charles A. Appleman, Plant Physiologist, Maryland Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, publishes in the July 15th issue of the "Journal of Agricultural Research" a full report of the chemical 

 experiments of the same order. This, perhaps, is the most satisfactory report of the two and will be of the greatest 

 importance to all who are interested on the subject. Generally speaking, the sugar content of such varieties of Sweet 

 Corn as Stowell's Evergreen will range in the neighborhood of five per cent. Within an extremely short time after 

 picking, when held in a normal summer temperature, even with the husks still on, the sugar content will start to fall 

 in an almost incredibly short time; perhaps in the first thirty minutes. 



This decrease in the percentage of sugar is due to condensation of polysaccharides, chiefly starch. Respiration 

 indirectly is also a factor in the depletion of sugar, especially in warm temperatures. At the end of the first twenty- 

 four hours, thirty per cent, of the sugar will have disappeared and the second twenty-four hours in the neighborhood 

 of twenty-five per cent. About thirty per cent, of the sugar content remains fixed in the corn, but, even so, at the end 

 of ninety-six hours, all evidence of the delicious corn flavor will disappear. This is true where the corn is husked or un- 

 husked or even \vrapped in oiled paper. The graphic illustration shown below is taken from Professor Appleman's 

 report, and will illustrate more forcefully all this much overlooked detail. There is one factor in the dispatch and 

 delivery which will help save the situation. If corn can immediately be placed in a freezing temperature, the loss of 

 sugar will not occur so fast; thus, in the chart, it is shown that at the end of the first twenty-four hours only seven 

 per cent, loss occurred, while a loss of forty-nine per cent, occurred in the same period in a temperature of seventy. 



Generally speaking, what is true concerning sweet corn will be true to a greater or lesser degree ^vith all vege- 

 tables, especially those which depend on their sugar content flavor for an attractive taste. The keeper of a home garden 

 will go a long way toward full success if this matter is kept constantly in mind when the vegetables are gathered for 

 the day and the market gardener will take a long step in attaining a reputation for quality if by some careful planning 

 his vegetables can reach the consumer twenty-four hours before his competitor. 



10 



20 



m 30 



" 40 



50 



60 



70 













1 1 1 



TOTA.L SUSASS 































32*6 





















































50°F 

















86" F 







esop 

























18 



24 



48 



H R 3 



72 



96 



This chart graphically illustrates the loss of sugar content of sweet corn after picking. 

 The curved lines represent the varying degrees of temperature. 

 Drawn after chart of Messrs. Appleman d- Arthur. 



