POP CORN The Tom Thumb race of corn has in the starchy part of the grain sufficient moisture to explode it when heated. This "popping" of corn turns the grain wrong side out, dries it and makes it twenty times as large as it was before. Because it has an excess of protein, pop corn is very nutritious. Combined with syrup, it is a confection that children enjoy, and wise parents are glad to give them. It makes a delicious, easily digested, and wholesome food. The only trouble is that factory made pop corn balls and bricks are often stale, and not sweetened with pure sugar. Home-made things are usually best.
In various parts of Iowa and neighboring states quantities of pop corn are raised by farmers that give their time to this crop. They sell it to the wholesaler, who supplies the manufacturer. As a rule, the crop is kept till the second year. It is too moist to pop well before that time, unless kiln-dried.
Two races of pop corn are grown : the rice type, with clear, horny grains sharply beaked at the place where the silk was attached, and the pearl type, with grains rounded on top, like the flint corn of the fields, or flat-topped. Red, blue, and white are the colors of the grains, solid or mixed on the cob. The pop corn field is easily recognized by the slim stalks and small ears, though the stalks are often tall.
It is a special kind of farming to get the crop matured before frost; then it must stand to let the frost harden the ears before the stalks are cut and shocked to dry, then husked by hand for storage or immediate shipment. One little town in Iowa is the point from which hundreds of carloads of pop corn go each autumn to the wholesale dealer.