stroyed. When the silk at the end of the corn has become dried and brown in color, the corn, as a rule, is ready for harvesting. However, this is not always a reliable indication of maturity on the part of the kernel. If the ear appears plump and mature, it is ready to harvest. If one is not experienced in this regard, it may be best to open the husk slightly and view the kernels. They should be in the milk stage, large, dull white, (not glossy), and soft. Then one is practically sure of the condition of the corn. MARKETING For canning, the ears may be gathered in baskets or boxes as picked, dumped into a wagon and, when a load is ready, carried immediately to the cannery. The grower is credited the weight of the corn, kernels, husks, and cob. The market gardener would take his corn to the packing shed, and should there carefully grade the corn and pack each grade in a separate receptacle. A bushel box should hold from forty-five to eighty ears, according to the size. Some growers pack the ears for shipment in bags, one hundred in each bag. This is not a good practice, because the corn is easily bruised, becomes heated, and is not in an attractive condition. Boxes or baskets should be used, and the corn should be packed to attract the eye. The home gardener can go out in the garden thirty minutes or less before dinner and harvest the corn direct from the plant, placing it immediately in the water for cooking, and enjoy it a little later with the guarantee that it is as fresh as one can get it. After the corn has been removed from the entire plot, or frost has destroyed it, the stalks should be severed from the roots and the garden made as attractive as possible. YIELDS One can obtain from eight thousand to nine thousand ears per acre or from two and one-half to five tons of corn ears. A small patch of corn will give the home gardener ample returns. POP CORN J. G. CURTIS, ROCHESTER, N. Y. Farmers' Institute Lecturer The growing of pop corn is attracting more attention than formerly as it has proved to be a very satisfactory money crop where the conditions are favorable. 66 The pop corns are a special group of flint corns used for " popping" as the name suggests, for eating out of hand or in confections. They are characterized by the small size of the kernels and their excessive hardness, and by the large proportion of horny substance contained in the kernels, which consists of a large percentage of moisture and gives the kernels the property of popping, or turning almost completely inside, out on the application of heat. The stalks of pop corn are considerably smaller than those of field corn, but on good soil will average about eight feet in height. The actual popping of the kernels is due to the expansion of moisture in the starch cells, the application of heat converting the moisture into steam, making the cell walls give way and causing an explosion with sufficient force to change the kernel into a large, irregular, flaky mass that has an especial value as an edible product. While in popping it loses in weight about 10 per cent., due to the evaporation of moisture by the heat employed, it should increase in bulk in the ratio of about sixteen to one. There are several factors which control this result, such as the even application of the heat and the condition of the corn. It may be too damp or too dry for best results, and, since the moisture content is high when the corn is harvested, it is usually held over one season before marketing. DISTRIBUTION Pop corn is grown successfully throughout the northern half of the United States wherever other corn can be grown, and at one time was grown in nearly every garden in New York and the New England states, but it has gradually come to be a sort of special farm crop grown in a commercial way by men who have found it profitable and have made the growing, handling and marketing of it a special study. The great bulk of the crop is now grown in Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Nebraska. VARIETIES There are about twenty-five different varieties of pop corn, but these are simply variations of the two distinct types or classes known as rice corn and pearl corn. The rice corn has kernels more or less pointed, and sometimes called "squirrel tooth." The pearl corn has kernels rounded or flattened over the top and are very smooth. These two classes may be divided into early, medium and late, and these again into white, yellow, and colored (not yellow). All of these varieties cross with each other so readily that it is difficult, under ordinary methods, to keep a variety strictly to any given type. The different varieties of both the rice and pearl corn may vary as to color through the several shades of white, amber, yellow, red, and black; also red and white striped. Some of the best known white varieties are the Monarch Rice, Snowball and Egyptian. Of the white pearl varieties, the Common White Pearl, Mapledale, Prolific and Nonpareil are standard varieties. Of the yellow pearl varieties, the most valuable are Queens Golden and Dwarf Golden, each of which has yellowish color when popped and has the taste peculiar to yellow In some localities the black varieties are quite popular and said to be very prolific. corn. SOIL AND FERTILIZERS Any well drained fertile soil, except a low peaty or muck soil, is suitable for the growth of pop corn. Whether the soil is sand, gravel, loam or clay, it must have a sufficient quantity of available plant food elements to give best results. In furnishing any or all of these, one should remember |