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245. Classification of Dent Varieties.-Dent varieties may be classified into eighteen groups as follows:

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Classification based upon maturity is open to the objection that the maturity is affected by season and climate, that what is an early variety in one locality may become a late variety in another, and vice versa. A classification based upon roughness of ear is difficult because of the almost insensible gradation from extreme smoothness to extreme roughness.

A classification based upon specimen ears alone may be as

follows: grains broader than deep, as deep as broad, and deeper than broad. It may be further subdivided according to evenness of ear: shallow rounding, moderately rounding, or deeply rounding at butt; and still further subdivided in accordance with the shape of ear, number of rows per ear, and color of grains.

246. Soft Maize is that type in which the endosperm is white, the corneous endosperm being entirely absent. The shape and outward appearance of the grain is similar to that of the flint type, but varies in size from not much larger than grains of pop maize to the largest known. The variety Cuzco from Peru has grains fifteen-sixteenths inch deep by eleven-sixteenths inch broad. The color is quite variable. The ears resemble those of the flint type, but are usually shorter, with slightly larger diameter.

This type is widely distributed and apparently was largely grown by the Indians on account of the ease with which it could be crushed. It is not grown for commercial purposes in North America. It is said that in some instances it is grown in place of sweet maize for eating green along the western coast of South America. Most of the varieties experimented with in the United States have either not matured or else have been very late in maturing.

247. Sweet Maize is that type in which the endosperm is translucent and horny in appearance, the starch having been more or less reduced to sugar.

What is probably a variation from this type is described by Sturtevant as starchysweet corn (Zea amyleasaccharata Sturt.). In this type the lower half of the grain is starchy, the upper half horny and translucent; otherwise it is like the ordinary sweet type. Varieties of this type were found in the San Pedro Indian collection, but failed to mature at Geneva, N. Y.1

The grains of sweet maize are usually broadly wedge-shaped, with more or less rounded summit and a characteristically wrinkled surface. While varying largely, a typical grain is one

1 Bul. Torr. Bot. Club, Vol. XXI, No. 8, p. 334

half inch deep, three-eighths inch wide by one-eighth inch thick. One hundred grains commonly weigh from twenty to twentyseven grams, or from 1,700 to 2,800 grains per pound. The plant is reported to vary in height from two to ten feet; usually from five to eight feet, and not infrequently bears more than one ear. There is considerable tendency to sucker. The ears vary in length from four to eleven inches; usually from six to

Sweet maize: variety, Stowell Ever

green. Ear and cross section one

third natural size; grain natural

size.

eight inches, and in diameter from one and one-fourth to two and onefourth inches; usually from one and one-half to one and three-fourths inches. The rows vary from eight to twenty-four, the greater number of varieties being twelve-rowed. Stowell Evergreen, the variety most extensively grown for canning purposes, is somewhat larger: ear seven to nine and one-half inches long, diameter two and one-fourth inches; twelve to twenty-rowed.

The weight of ear varies largely with variety, those of early varieties being much smaller than late varieties. Selected ears have been found to vary from seven and a half pounds to seventy-five pounds per hundred,

the most common weight being from twenty-five to forty pounds per hundred for selected ears.

From the earliest any one season of

The time required to bring sweet maize into edible condition varies with variety, climate and season from fifty-four to 115 days; usually from sixty to ninety days. to the latest varieties there is a difference in from three to four weeks. Sweet maize is extensively raised for cooking and eating while in the milk stage. It forms the basis

of a large canning industry in the North Atlantic and North Central States. It is less generally grown in the Southern It is believed to improve in quality as it proceeds northward, Maine grown sweet maize being especially prized. "The first sweet corn recorded in American cultivation was the Papoon corn, an eight-rowed variety with red cob, introduced into the region about Plymouth, Mass., from the Indians of the Susquehanna in 1779."1

Eleven stations have recommended lists of varieties of sweet maize. The following list has been recommended by three or more stations: Early: Cory, Marblehead, Crosby, Chicago Market, Early Landreth; Medium: Squantum, Maule's XX, Stabler's Early; Late: Ne Plus Ultra, Stowell Evergreen, Country Gentleman.

248. Number of Varieties.-The distinct names given to varieties of maize are almost innumerable, and no complete study of them has ever been made. Sturtevant describes 507 varieties and 266 synonyms classified by types as follows:

Number of
varieties

2

Number of

Type

Pop

Flint

Dent

Soft

Sweet

25

69

323

27

63

synonyms

18

85

109

I

53

It is stated that some of the varieties would upon further study be found to be synonyms of other varieties.

249. Varieties for Silage.-The dent type is used almost exclusively for silage on account of its greater total yield of forage. Experiments made at the Maine Station, where dent varieties have the least adaptation of any State for ordinary field pur

1 U. S. Dept. of Agr., O. E. S. Bul. 57, p. 18.

2 Varieties of Corn. U. S. Dept. of Agr.. O. E. S. Bul. 57.

3 Me. Rpt. 1891, p. 44.

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