•1912. 
©V9 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
Ruralisms 
FLINT AND DENT CORN IN AGRI¬ 
CULTURE. 
Flint or Dent? —The ever recurring 
question after the “corn talk” at the 
farmers’ institute is: “Would you grow 
flint corn or dent corn?” It is such a 
broad question that the shortest answer 
on the spur of the moment is—that de¬ 
pends. It sounds as if one were hedg¬ 
ing, but this is not the case. That an¬ 
swer is the only one that can be given, 
for the decision must depend upon sev¬ 
eral attending circumstances. 
Which Came First?— Both flint 
and dent corns were being cultivated in 
various parts of the country when the 
Europeans arrived. They are being 
cultivated in all parts of the country at 
the present time. As far as.written rec¬ 
ords are concerned, therefore, there is 
no reason to believe one type older than 
the other. . Some very reasonable con¬ 
clusions on this score, however, can be 
drawn from studies of the plants them¬ 
selves. The flint corns are more like 
the supposed prototypes of maize—the 
Mexican podded corn with husks around 
each seed, and the wild teosinte—than 
are the dent corns. This reason alone 
justifies the belief that the flint is the 
more primitive type. And there is one 
other piece of corroborative evidence. 
Careful studies of numerous crosses be¬ 
tween flint and dent varieties have in¬ 
dicated that the latter have arisen from 
the former by numerous progressive va¬ 
riations, that is, by the origin of new 
characters. These new characters are 
not easily described. They are not like 
the ordinary yellow seed color or the 
red “hull” color, these being variations 
common to both flints and dents. They 
are size characters. We may imagine 
FLINT AND DENT CORN. Fig. 410. 
the primitive corn as more like pop 
corn, with small seeds, tough hulls and 
a uniformly hard translucent starch 
content. As new variations with larger 
sized seeds appeared, the flints arose. 
At a later date, still larger seeds ap¬ 
peared, borne on ears with a greater 
number of rows, and these seeds were 
dented. The dent character is caused 
by a layer of soft starch at the top or 
cap of the seed which shrinks more in 
drying than the hard semi-transparent 
starch, and this character is correlated 
with a large or a long seed and numer¬ 
ous rows. There are dents with only 
eight rows, there are dents with com¬ 
paratively small seeds, there are dents 
with somewhat short seeds, but there is 
not a single variety in which all of 
these characters are present. Viewed 
from the other standpoint, the flints are 
characterized by few rows of short and 
somewhat small seeds. 
Flints at the North.— The flint is 
not a product of cold, as is often 
thought. The dent variety does not 
change to flint when taken to southern 
Canada. At the same time one must 
admit that there is a good reason why 
this belief should have become current. 
The flint variety is more fitted for the 
short northern Summer than the dent. 
There are some very late maturing 
flints, just as there are late maturing 
pops, but in general the flint is an early 
corn. Furthermore, the flinty kernel 
contains less moisture, dries quicker 
and is much more likely to mature a 
perfect viable seed than its dent cousin 
The reason the dent often appears to 
change to flint in the north therefore is 
simply this. Every corn variety, no 
matter how carefully selected, is a col¬ 
lection of hybrids. It may take the care¬ 
ful study of an expert to determine just 
wherein it is hybrid, but this can be 
done. The fact that corn is wind 
fertilized is the cause. Flint varieties 
practically always contain some dent 
“blood,” therefore, and dent varieties 
contain some flint “blood.” When one 
carries one of these long season dent 
varieties into the north, the inevitable 
happens. The hybrid characters break 
up and recombine. The ears with the 
most typical dent characters do not ma¬ 
ture. The ears typically flint are early 
and do mature. In a few years the va¬ 
riety in our possession is a flint, but it is 
not the same variety with which we 
started. The flint blood or flint char¬ 
acters held within the original hybrid 
collection that was purchased as a pure 
commercial variety has persisted be¬ 
cause it could mature, the dent blood 
or dent character has been eliminated 
because the long season that it needed 
was not available. 
Different Analyses. —Dent and flint 
varieties vary greatly in their chemical 
constitutions. One cannot say if this 
or that is grown more food value per 
acre will be produced. In general the 
flints average slightly higher than the 
dents in protein, which is the most ex¬ 
pensive nutrient; but as there is a varia¬ 
tion of over three per cent in protein 
in different varieties of each type, this 
difference does not amount to much. If 
the grower obtains a high yield of well- 
matured grain per acre, he need not 
worry about its nutritive value. The 
question as to how to obtain this yield 
is another thing. 
Flint’s Short Season.— There is no 
doubt but that under ideal conditions 
the best dent varieties will yield more 
grain and more stover per plant than 
the best flint varieties. It is simply a 
matter of arithmetic. The former are 
the larger. But one should not decide 
from this fact that flints have no place 
in modern agriculture. On the con¬ 
trary, they have a very firmly estab¬ 
lished place. Yield is due to two things, 
environment and heredity, and both 
must be taken into consideration when 
deciding what to grow. I take it that 
this decision only becomes necessary 
when we are dealing with an average 
length of season and a mediumly fer¬ 
tile soil. The other extremes need no 
choice. Flints must be grown where the 
season is very short, unless fodder only 
is produced; and dents should be grown 
where the season is long and the soil 
extremely fertile, on account of the 
greater yield. On the medium soil and 
with the medium length season—the 
conditions typical of a large part of 
New England—the question of which 
type to grow is pertinent and proper. 
The Story.—I think a generally good 
recommendation would be as follows: 
For silage grow dent, for grain grow 
flint, unless the location is such that a 
12-ounce dent ear will mature perfectly 
in an average season and the soil is 
naturally fertile or can be made so 
artificially at a profit. The average soil 
outside of the corn belt of the Middle 
West needs to have plant food supplied 
to produce a profitable crop, and this 
will soon be the case in the corn belt 
if they do not replace more consistently 
the plant food they remove by their crops. 
Now there is much of this average agri¬ 
cultural land where the owner or the 
tenant cannot afford to put on all the 
fertilizer that his corn crop could use 
profitably. In such a case flint corns 
show up to advantage. They v/ill ma¬ 
ture a reasonable crop where a dent va¬ 
riety would give only nubbins. On a 
rather sterile soil, therefore, let us vote 
for flint and fertilizer; at least until we 
can get the soil into such fine condition 
that bumper crops are always assured. 
When that time comes, the grower is 
usually busy at the receiving teller’s 
window, and will continue growing the 
crop that took him there, e. m. east. 
Harvard University. 
Chickweed in Lawn.—I note recent in¬ 
quiry of J. A. H. about chickweed in lawn. 
I believe the chickweed may be choked 
out by letting the grass grow four or five 
Inches high before cutting, for one season. 
Some years ago I had a lawn in which 
chickweed began to appear quite thickly, 
and it certainly disappeared when treated 
as above. s. b. 
Clingstone Peaches.— How strongly do 
customers object to clingstone peaches? 
Well, they cling to their objections about as 
strongly as the flesh of the clingstone 
clings to the seed. However, the standard 
late solid cling peaches have many friends, 
' and I plant a few trees occasionally of 
the Heath Cling variety, as a number of 
my customers desire some of the fruit for 
canning whole, either with or without 
spice. They are excellent this way, and 
we reserve a share of them for our own 
use. But it is the semi-cling peach, that 
early succulent peach which “slightly clings 
to the seed,” as the catalogues say, that 
is so objectionable. In this class may be 
placed Triumph, Alexander, etc., and even 
the Champion, fine as it is, gives some 
trouble in this way. Nevertheless, I con¬ 
tinue to plant a very few of these early 
kinds (that is, the first two named—the 
Champion is a standard sort), that we 
may have peaches to chew at till the good 
ones ripen. Also I have no trouble in 
selling the surplus, but charge only half 
price, while the later clings are sold at a 
lower price than the freestones. 
Pennsylvania. david plank. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
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D 
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Ordinary plowing turns 
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“ plow sole ’ ’ that lim¬ 
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No. 30 
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FENCE PRICES BUSTED 
15c 1 ™ 
ROD 
buys this High Grade Hog Fencing:: heavier 
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strongest built, per rod___ 
$1.25 MJ GALVANIZED WIRE 
This price is for No. 6 gauge. Other sizes In pro- 
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to a bundle, suitable for Fencing and general purposes. 
BARBWIRE, 
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Fencing.WireGates, Lawn Fence, Fence Posts,etc. 
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