CORN, grain, such as wheat and barley; maize, or Indian corn; also the plants that yield grain; breadstuff. This is a generic term for all kinds of grain used for malcing bread, and is applied specifically to the principal breadstuff ; in England to wheat, in the United States to Indian corn or maize? and in Scotland frequently to oats. The word is Anglo-Saxon, and occurs in similar forms in the other Teutonic tongues. The words seem to have been used in ancient times as at present, having a different meaning in different countries.
Indian corn, also called maize, is an endo gen which grows luxuriantly in warm temperate climates. It belongs to the tribe of Phalaridee of the order of Graminco, or grasses. It is known in botanical science by the name Zea mays. The flowers are moncecious; the male flowers forming a loose panicle at the top of the culm; the female flowers in axillary spikes, en closed in large, tough spathes, from which only the extremely long styles — in the common spe cies six to eight inches in length — hang out like tufts of feathers or silken tassels. The grains are large, roundish, compressed, naked and arranged in parallel rows along the upright axis of the spike. The long parallel-veined leaves and the stalks are often used as fodder. The common Indian corn is generally believed to be a native of the warmer parts of America, where it was cultivated by the aborigines before the discovery by Columbus; but a representation of the plant found in an ancient Chinese book in the royal library in Paris, and the alleged dis covery of some grains of it in the cellars of ancient houses in Athens, have led some to sup pose that it is a native also of the East, and has, from a very early period, been cultivated there, and even that it is the ((corn° of Scrip ture; although, on this supposition, it is not eary to account for the subsequent neglect of it until after the discovery of America, since which the spread of its cultivation in the Old World has taken place with a rapidity such as might be expected from its great productiveness and other valuable qualities. Columbus himself took
it to Spain. When first introduced into Europe, many supposed it was brought from Asia, and it was frequently known as Turkey corn, Tur key wheat.
Sweet corn is any one of the starch corns, flint, dent or flour corn, that has lost its faculty of converting sugars into starches. It is grown chiefly as a vegetable for table use, although the stover is often harvested as forage for stocic. Its culture is most extensive in the vicinity of large cities, where it is grown as a truck crop and in certain regions where it is grown as a canning crop. The principal can ning variety is a late corn, Stowell Evergeen. Country Gentleman is also used to a large ex tent among the canners. In Maine, a corn known as Clarles is used for canning. Hickox and Trucker's Favorite are the principal can ning varieties in other regions. In the su burn trudc gardens the custom is either to plant early and late corn, or one high-class variety every two weeks. Cory, Crosby, Quincy Market, Country Gentleman and Sto well Evergreen are often planted in the order named. According to the latest census the nurnber of farms growing sweet corn in the United States was 48,514, the number of acres 178,224, the value of the product $5,936,419. New York had 6,584 farms producing sweet corn to the value of $942,023. Pennsylvania was second with 4,896 farms. Illinois had the second place in number of acres, with 19,976 acres and second in value of product, which was valued at $558,746. Ohio, Maryland and New Jersey are next in importance. The corn canning industry flourishes in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New York and Ohio.
In 1915 the amount of Indian corn produced in the United States was 3,054,535,000 bushels (final estimate, December), and in 1914 it was 2,672,804,000 bushels. Argentina in 1914 produced 204,562,000; Mexico, 190,000,000; Ru mania, 110,230,000; Italy, 105,006,000 bushels. Estimate for the maize crop of the world, 4, 000,000,000 to 4,500,000,000 bushels.