THE BONNEWITZ GARDENS, VAN WERT, OHIO 
Listen to this. If great, great grandfather Atkinson and his 
wife were wise in thinking that the sweet corn he procured was 
worth the effort to keep it alive; if Aunt Nancy and Aunt Mary 
did not waste their time for eighty-five years on this corn; if the 
citizens of Plain City are not mistaken when they tell you that this 
is the best corn in the world; if I have not been foolish in expending 
over $500 on the purchase, dehydration and cultivation of this corn, 
with the thought in mind that with the ownership of it, I can 
pay the $1,400 mortgage on the little farm near London, Ohio, 
which is all that Aunt Mary has succeeded in saving from the 
forced sale of the old Atkinson farm; if all these things which 
I have enumerated are true, then this corn is so valuable that at 
least one citizen in every one of the 14,000 towns and hamlets in 
the United States can put money in his pocket, by the sale both of 
green corn, and of seed of it for planting. 
There is one way and only one way to find out whether all these 
things are true or not, and that way is very simple. It is the eating 
of the corn. All my time during the next four months, with the 
exception of that which I will spend in dehydrating the corn for 
seed, and that which I must give to the shipping of my peonies and 
Iris, will be given to having as many persons as possible, from as 
many different communities as possible, eat of this corn. 
My task then will be to find some person in each community 
who can get a vision of the usefulness of this corn in his neighbor¬ 
hood. 
Here are the points of usefulness which he should confirm, and 
after he knows them to be true, then it will be time enough to 
extol them. First, I believe that it is sweeter than any other va¬ 
riety of white sweet corn. Second, while this corn is two weeks 
slower in being ready for the table than some other varieties, yet it 
retains its edibleness or good eating qualities longer than any other 
corn I have ever seen. Third, while its failure to ripen in the garden 
or field may be considered as a disadvantage, yet to the man who 
wishes to build up a seed trade on it, it is a very great advantage, 
for he can depend upon repeat orders for seed from his customers 
each year. Fourth, the size of the ear pleases both the grocer and 
the consumer of the corn. Fifth, its color is much more attractive 
than the yellow varieties which look like the corn we feed to 
animals. 
If the prospective purchaser of seed corn discovers all these 
things to be true, then he can determine whether Aunt Mary Atkin¬ 
son’s sweet corn can bring him a reward for the efforts he places 
upon it. 
I hope all readers will realize at the start that I would rather not 
sell them any seed, than to have them regret its purchase. If my 
customers are satisfied with it, their purchases and the purchases 
of their friends will bring me a little income long after Aunt Mary’s 
mortgage has been paid in full. 
[ 12] 
