FRUIT AND GARDEN NOTES. 



603 



had been greater than the supply for almost a week, I 

 suggested that we could get 15 cents a quart just as well, 

 and the supply is still (July 12) less than the demand." 



SWEET-CORN. 



Growing sweet-corn for market and for home use are 

 two quite different things. That ' ' great beast, " the pub- 

 lic, cares nothing for quality in comparison 

 with size, though, to do it justice, it has no 

 particular objection to quality along with 

 size. No early sweet-corn can compete in 

 market with Cory, which is probably the 

 very poorest sweet-corn ever put before the 

 public — and the most popular. But Perry 

 Hybrid, as a second early, is good, and as 

 popular as Cory. Crosby, a choice table- 

 corn, is said to be popular in the Boston 

 market, but is not salable alongside of 

 larger sorts of the same season. Washing- 

 ton Market ( Egyptian ) is probably the 

 best of the late kinds, and sells readily. 

 Black Mexican is quoted in many catalogues 

 as the best late corn, and, some add, "a 

 favorite variety ;" yet leading seedsmen tell 

 me there is very little sale for it — mean- 

 ing, I suppose, among the market men. It 

 is grown almost exclusively in private gar- 

 dens. There is a variety of this "black" 

 (dark purple) corn that is quite early. It 

 has larger ears than the old sort, but it has 

 as yet attracted no attention. This corn is 

 interesting because i t s origin is known, 

 which is not the case with the old sort, so 

 far as I can learn. Some 20 years ago Dr. 

 Sturtevant took a good deal of trouble to 

 make a collection and write the history of 

 as many kinds of corn as he could find ; 

 but he seems not to have been able to trace 

 out the antecedents of "Mexican corn." 

 There is no apparent reason for attributing 

 it to Mexico ; yet a number of varieties of 

 parti-colored corn are known to be grown 

 by the Indians, especially by the Pueblo 

 tribes of the southwest. About 12 years 

 ago Secretary Gold, of the Connecticut 

 Board of Agriculture, sent me an ear of corn 

 said to have been received from the Sioux 

 Indians of Minnesota. This corn was early, 

 quite dwarf, and the ears grew near the 

 ground. They were small, and the kernels 

 were milk-white and china-blue in about 

 equal proportions. With very little trouble 

 and a few years' trial the two colors were 

 separated, the blue kind having a much darker shade of 

 foliage. Some of this being planted not far from a piece 

 of early white sweet-corn, ears appeared on the latter 

 sprinkled with dark blue kernels, which, when dry, had 

 the exact appearance of the Black Mexican. Planting 

 separately for a few years brought this corn to a nearly 



complete uniformity, with ears much longer and better 

 and several weeks earlier than the old Black Mexican. 



I note this experiment as illustrating the flexibility of 

 the corn-plant, which admits of rapid adaptation to varied 

 localities and conditions, but causes it to vary and degen- 

 erate readily under careless treatment. This is especially 

 true of garden varieties, and explains why sweet-corn 



(Fage( 



carelessly grown, is found to " run out " in a very short 

 time. Growers of sweet-corn for seed must exercise great 

 care to keep it up to the standard in all telling points. In 

 closely settled neighborhoods this is practically impossi- 

 ble, on account of mixing ; and seed from such localities, 

 no matter how carefully grown, cannot be strictly pure. 



