Parching Corn (White Kernel).
Pop-corn.
Stalk six feet high, usually producing two ears, which are from six to eight inches long, quite slender, and uniformly eight-rowed; cob white; kernel roundish, flattened, glossy, flinty, or rice-like, and of a dull, semi-transparent, white color. When parched, it is of pure snowy whiteness, very brittle, tender, and well flavored, and generally considered the best of all the sorts used for this purpose.
In some parts of Massachusetts, as also in New Hampshire, the variety is somewhat extensively cultivated for commercial purposes. Its peculiar properties seem to be most perfectly developed in dry, gravelly, or silicious soils, and under the influence of short and warm seasons. In field culture, it is either planted in hills three feet apart, or in drills three feet apart, and eighteen inches apart in the drills. The product per acre is usually about the same number of bushels of ears that the same land would yield of shelled-corn of the ordinary field varieties.
Increase of size is a sure indication of deterioration. The cultivator should aim to keep the variety as pure as possible by selecting slender and small-sized but well-filled ears for seed, and in no case to plant such as may have yellow or any foreign sort intermixed. The value of a crop will be diminished nearly in a relative proportion to the increase of the size of the ears.
Parching Corn (Yellow).
A yellow variety of the preceding. It retains its color to some extent after being parched; and this is considered an objection. It is tender, but not so mild flavored as the white, and is little cultivated. The size and form of the ears are the same, and it is equally productive.
Red-Cob Sweet.
Ears about eight inches in length by a diameter of two inches,—usually twelve but sometimes fourteen rowed; kernels roundish, flattened, white when suitable for boiling, shrivelled, and of a dull, semi-transparent white when ripe; the cob is red, which may be called its distinguishing characteristic. Quality good; the kernel being tender and sweet. It remains long in good condition for the table, and is recommended for general cultivation. Season intermediate.
A sub-variety occurs with eight rows; the form and size of the ear and kernel resembling Darling's Early.