May 3 ,1924 Relative Merits of Sweet Com Varieties for Canning 427 
SUGAR CONTENT 
The total sugar is found to increase up to the 15-day stage and then to de¬ 
crease rapidly at first and then more slowly during the later-maturing stages. 
The proportion of the reducing to nonreducing sugars is constantly changing. 
The reducing sugars decrease throughout the growing and maturing periods of 
the kernels. The nonreducing or cane sugar is low at first, increases rapidly 
to 15 days and slowly decreases. An idea of the rate and nature of these changes 
may be obtained at a glance from figures 10 and 11. 
The different varieties of sweet corn do not vary widely at any stage of 
maturity in the quantities of sugar which they contain. At the ages of 5 and 
10 days differences in amount are slight. The greatest variation seems to be 
at 15 days. With but a few exceptions the differences in sugar content at 20 
days can not be considered as very significant. Kelly’s Hybrid, Potter’s Excel¬ 
sior, and Howling Mob had the highest sugar content at this stage and Dreer’s 
Golden Giant, Hickox’s Improved, and Country Gentleman the lowest. In th e 
slow-maturing varieties the sugar content decreased almost as fast as in the 
more rapidly maturing corns. This was contrary to expectation, and if found 
to be true from year to year, must be taken into account in choosing the proper 
stage for canning. Of the field varieties Reid’s Yellow Dent is seen to be 
significantly lower in total sugars than the sweet varieties, but the differences 
between these and the Boone County White is not very marked. There is, 
however, at 20 and 25 days a lower percentage of nonreducing or cane sugar in 
both of the field varieties. 
The relation of these analytical results to the findings in the quality of the 
canned samples will be discussed later in the consideration of that subject. 
POLYSACCHARIDES 
The nature and quantity of the polysaccharides in sweet corn, together with 
the moisture content, determine to a large extent the consistency of the canned 
product. They are, therefore, of considerable interest and importance in canning. 
In food value the three most important groups of the polysaccharides are the 
starches, dextrins and pentosans. The last-mentioned group is reported to be 
present in but small amounts in the maize kernel (5, 60, 63, 69) and from the 
standpoint of canned corn do not seem to be significant. The present study has 
been confined, therefore, to the starches and dextrins. 
From the analytical tables it is noted that in all varieties the content of total 
polysaccharides increases with age of the corn, but the rate of increase varies 
somewhat with different varieties. The slow-maturing corns, such as Stowell’s 
Evergreen, Narrow Grained Evergreen, Mammoth Sugar, and Old Colony show 
a less rapid increase in the total polysaccharides than is observed in Golden 
Bantam, Dreer’s Golden Giant, Crosby and others of the more rapidly maturing 
sorts. This is closely correlated with the differences in moisture content and, as 
will be shown in connection with the discussion of the canned material, with the 
consistency of the canned product. 
Of the two field varieties the total polysaccharides in the Boone County White 
is somewhat below the average of the sweet varieties and in Reid’s Yellow Dent 
it is no greater than in many of the sweet varieties. Great differences are ob¬ 
served, however, in the consistency of the canned product from the sweet and 
the field varieties, and since the total polysaccharides show no marked differences 
in quantity the nature of the polysaccharides must be important. It would seem 
that the amount of the water soluble portion might throw some light upon this 
matter. In the sweet varieties at 20, 25, and 30 days of age the water soluble 
portion varies from less than one-half to a little more than one-half of the total 
