subject is smut (q.v.), against which methods of prevention are not well understood. Rust does no material injury to corn. The bacterial disease of corn sometimes does considerable damage. The principal insect enemy is the cutworm, which destroys the young plants. Extensive injury is frequently done by ground squirrels, which feed on the planted seed. These animals are usually poisoned about planting time with poisoned corn and pumpkin seeds.
The maize crop of the world is estimated at from 2500 to 3000 million bushels annually. The annual corn production of the United States amounts to about 2000 million bushels. The great corn-producing States are Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and Indiana. In 1890 these States produced 1,256,162,321 bushels, or nearly three-fifths of the entire crop of the United States. About fifty bushels per acre is considered a good yield, but the average yield per acre for the whole United States is only about twenty-five bushels. The largest yield of corn on record, 237 bushels per acre, was produced in South Carolina.
Corn is utilized in the preparation of more than one hundred different articles. Its chief value is as food for man and domestic animals. For feeding purposes the entire plant is used either as it comes from the field or prepared in various ways to make it more palatable and to minimize the amount of waste in feeding (see below). The husks are used in making mattresses, especially in the corn-growing regions. The outer portion of the stalk is used in paper manufacture, and the pith is employed in making pyroxylin varnishes, guncotton, and other high explosives. Owing to its great resilience, porosity, and absorptive power, the pith is also used in the construction of war vessels, compressed blocks of it being packed behind the outer armor plate to absorb the water and close the aperture in case the plate is pierced by a projectile. The cobs are often ground up for feed, but they are generally used for fuel and are also employed to a considerable extent in the manufacture of tobacco pipes. The principal and most common product of the grain is the flour, or cornmeal, which is either white or yellow, according to the variety of corn from which it is made. Nearly all the starch and large quantities of glucose, whisky, and alcohol manufactured in the United States are made from corn. In connection with the manufacture of these various substances a number of by-products are obtained which are generally used for feeding purposes. (See Gluten Meal and Gluten Feed). Maize or corn oil is obtained from the germ which is extracted from the kernel in the manufacture of starch, glucose (q.v.), and some kinds of meal. The oil expressed from the germ is a light, clear, amber-colored fluid, which may be used for culinary, mechanical, and lighting purposes. It is used to some extent in the manufacture of soap and of a substitute for rubber.
Sweet Corn or Sugar Corn (Zea saccharata), generally considered a garden vegetable, is extensively grown in home gardens and for marketing and canning. As a vegetable it is used while the kernels are plump and well filled out but still containing milky juice. The ripened kernels have a wrinkled appearance. Sweet corn is adapted to any soil suitable for field corn, though more attention is given to manuring. A warm, rich, sandy loam is considered most desirable. On the northern limits of the corn belt sweet corn is grown as a field crop because of its rapid growing and early maturing habits. Some of the smaller and earlier sorts develop in seventy days; the later varieties require 90 to 100 days. The amount grown for canning purposes in 1898 has been given at 4,398,563 cases, each containing two dozen two-pound cans. Corn for canning is grown mostly in New York, Maine, Illinois, and Iowa.
Popcorn (Zea everta) is characterized by small ears, scarcely exceeding six inches in length and 1½ inches in diameter, small kernels, and an excessive portion of hard, flinty endosperm in the seed. This latter is supposed to give the property of popping, which is the complete turning inside out of the kernel on the application of heat. Through popping the kernels become very much enlarged, so that a pint of kernels before popping makes six to eight quarts after popping. The popped kernels are pure white and are eaten out of hand or mixed with syrup and pressed into balls or cakes to be eaten like confectionery. Popcorn requires about the same soil and treatment as field corn.
Feeding Value and Uses of Maize as Food. Corn is of the greatest importance and is extensively used in the feeding of farm animals because of the variety and cheapness of feeding stuffs which it furnishes. The uncured plant in different stages of maturity is used as forage; corn shives (i.e. the stalks from which the pith has been removed) have recently been used to some extent; the ripened grain, whole or ground, is fed to all classes of farm animals, often on the cob and often ground with the cob as ‘corn and cob meal;’ various byproducts from the manufacture of starch, glucose, corn ‘breakfast foods,’ etc., are also largely employed. As a food for man, corn is used cracked or crushed as hominy, and finely ground, both bolted and unbolted, as meal. From white corn flour is made by grinding the grain after the removal of the germ and some of the outer envelope.
The composition of these materials and some others mentioned later is shown in the table on the following page.
Like all green crops, corn fodder has a high water content. It owes its nutritive value principally to the carbohydrates which it contains. It is also useful as a feeding stuff, because it is succulent, gives necessary bulk to a ration, and is relished by animals. Dried corn fodder and stover are similar in composition to hay, and are very valuable feeding stuffs, but unless cut fine or shredded and otherwise properly handled, a considerable portion may be wasted when fed. It often lacks flavor, and since it is chiefly a carbohydrate food, a one-sided ration, it should be fed with material rich in protein (i.e. concentrated feeds). Its palatability may be increased by moistening with water and sprinkling with bran and steaming. The best results are said to be obtained when only about one-third of the coarse fodder consists of stover. According to reports of the United States Department of Agriculture, the corn stover crop of the United States in 1897 was nearly 80,000,000 tons, much larger than the hay crop.
Corn silage, which resembles the green crop in composition, is wholesome and is relished by farm animals. The grain is especially rich in
