ACIDITY IN DETERMINING SOUNDNESS OF CORN. 
25 
ary to May, 1913, inclusive, and represents the general average of both 
crops combined. By the degree of acidity of the mechanical separa- 
tions the superior quality and condition of the crop of 1912 is also shown. 
In one instance in figure 21 the acidity of the corn designated as 
" badly damaged" appears somewhat lower than the acidity of the 
corn designated as ''slightly damaged." This is due to the fact that 
the corn designated as "badly damaged" had so far undergone de- 
terioration as to be typical of rot and decay, which agencies tend to 
cause a state of alkalinity rather than a state of acidity. At one 
time, no doubt, before the corn reached that state of rot and decay, 
the degree of acidity was higher. Rot and decay serve to slightly 
reduce the maximum degree of acidity which the corn attains in the 
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Fig. 22.— Curves showing the monthly average degree of acidity and percentage of germination of corn 
as received at a principal terminal market (C). 
cycle of deterioration, but leaves the degree of acidity sufficiently 
high to stamp the corn as being wholly unsound. 
The general relation of the degree of acidity to the germinative 
power of corn arriving at a terminal market is shown in figure 22 by 
curves which represent monthly averages. Attention is called (1) to 
the marked increase in the degree of acidity and decrease in the per- 
centage of germination starting in the spring with the approach of 
warm weather and continuing throughout the summer months and 
again (2) to the very marked decrease in the degree of acidity and 
increase in the percentage of germination commencing in October, 
upon the arrival of the new crop. Through germination and acidity 
the superior quality and condition of the crop of 1912 over the crop 
of 1911 is again shown by these curves. 
