Show touring world with corn crop corn in other countries dont mean what it does in america washington because the three lion bushel corn crop in the unite states for the past season apparently cannot be marketed satisfactorily either in the sack or on the hoot corn holds the center of the economic and aea the political stage an fn america just now just what Is corn asks a bulletin from the ashington DC head quarters of the hat lonal geographic society the youngest farro lad will be he can answer that question fully continues the bulletin but can he tell an englishman that a bumper corn crop Is causing our farmers eco distress and he will not think of fields of great tall stalks and big gold en ears but of waving wheat and huge elevators you must speak of maize it you would have him understand talk to a south african of either corn or maize and he will fall to get your meaning he grows the same plant with its grain studded cobs but it is mp alles to him so around the world you will find what we know as corn growing under halt dozen aliases while in other english speak ing countries corn means something entirely different corn Is an english word of long standing of old it meant any small hard granule pepper corn Is one survival while corned beef Is sur another corned meat gets its name from the fact that it was first prepared with coarse grains of salt salt corns een acorn has had a misspelling earh englishmen naturally mistook its der to be from oak corn corn and lawn grasses are cousins brom its very general meaning corn aed alone came in time to mean the small grains of the cereal plants such as barley wheat oats etc and finally in england and some of the colonies it usually meant wheat corn meant the cereals in general at the time of the colonization of america and since indian corn was the predominant grain crop in alie new world it soon monopolized the name to those who have not dabbled in botany the classification of corn often reaching a height of 20 feet as a grass is a bit surprising it Is how ever just as truly a grass as th haj stants abat golf greens the sue chient foliage eliat covers pastures alie cereals oats rice and the like or its closer kinsmen the sugar canes and the sorghums sorg hums corn Is often called a giant grass it Is rather a giant though beside its cousin bamboo the grass that grows into the sk bamboo attains a height of feet and more the confusion in regard to corn is increased by the existence of still oth er corns kaffir corn also a grass and a cousin of indian corn Is one of the erain sorghums sorg hums it carries its round seeds not on ears but in an upright plume at the very top of its talk where indian corn has its grain less tassel it did not reach america until after jerusalem corn Is somewhat like kaffar corn and the other grain sor chums allo maize durra etc but its seed clusters hang dow nw ard the ends of the stalk being bent over it too Is an immigrant broom corn Is the queerest of the cousins that bear commonly the corn surname and incidentally it Is the old est of the bearing sorghums sorg hums to be cultivated in the united states brooms were made commercially in america from locally grown broom corn as early as 1708 and the plant was grown for home broom making some years earlier the seeds ire of little value in broom corn lut the stems of the seed clusters fre ad suited to use in making brooms corn that turns inside out popcorn Is merely a sort of dwarf indian corn bearing small ears stud ded with small hard kernels the lat ter have the property however of put fang or popping when heat Is applied the hard outer shell bursts and the grain puffs out so violently that it turns itself inside out millions of dollars in nickels and dimes have changed hands on american street cor ners because of the contortions of pop corn grains it Is generally accepted that amer lea gave indian corn to the world A few students have supported the theory that the plant came from asia to europe and from america to eu rope at about the same time soon at er the discovery are no generally accepted records of corns existence in asia before the beginning of the sixteenth century however while it Is known to have been cultivated in america for many centuries before the arrival of co lumbus since the fifteenth century corn has spread all over the world and Is now an important crop in parts of all the continents as well as in 1 cw zea land and other islands it Is one of the most important food grains in por alons of portugal spain france italy yugoslavia yugo slavia and rumania in burma the corn grain Is a sort of by product the type grown there has fine silky shucks or husks inclosing the ear this Is the highly prized product it Is used to wap W ap atie white cherooty cheroots che roots smoked by burmese men women and babies |