CHAPTER XXII.
UNCLASSIFIED ANNUALS.
In this division of garden crops come sweet corn, okra and martynia, which have no relation to the other crops, and none to each other, except that they require about the same cultivation. They are all warm-weather crops and are grown for their immature fruits. They require “quick” soil, are not usually transplanted and demand little care, except good tillage.
SWEET CORN.
Although almost unknown in any other part of the world, in America sweet corn is one of the most important crops. One hardly ever sees even a small backyard garden without a few stalks of sweet corn, while the canning industry has grown to such enormous proportions as to require thousands of acres of corn every year. Sweet corn cannot be grown in the South unless the seed is gotten from the North every year. It thrives best in the crisp climate of the Northern States and of Canada.
This is the crop that gave rise to the famous joke at the “World’s Fair” in Chicago. The Englishman asked the girl in charge, “What do you do with so much corn?”
“Oh,” she said, “we eat what we can, and what we can’t we can.”
Afterwards Johnny Bull tried to tell the story. “So funny,” he said; “she told me that they eat what they can, and what they can’t they put in tins—why don’t you laugh?”
Sweet corn requires more attention than field corn, both as regards earliness and the proper development of each plant. For this reason it is planted in hills rather than long drills, and in warmer and quicker soil, with quickly available fertilizer. Ground that has been plowed deep the fall before, and fertilized with well-rotted manure makes a good soil; if the ground be hard or cold, a handful of commercial fertilizer may be added to each hill.
Although corn is a hot-season plant, it is practically a surface feeder, so it cannot withstand drought as well as potatoes or other crops. That is why it is well to plow deep and make a good moisture-holding bottom in order to get good corn of any kind. That is also the reason for the frequent surface tillage given the growing plants.
Seed is planted for the early crop as soon as the ground is warm enough, and as corn rots quickly either in cold or damp ground, it is well to plant freely. Coating with tar perhaps preserves it, at least from the crows. The idea is to get as many ears as possible from each plant, so give plenty of room, the rows being three to four feet apart, and each hill from two and a half to three feet apart. For early crops use Early Minnesota, Early Vermont, Cory and Crosby and other popular brands. The Stowell Evergreen is the standard for late crops. Corn may be sown successionally, at intervals of a week or two, either for the home garden or for market supply.
In growing for market, earliness should be borne particularly in mind. The whole profit in corn may hinge upon even one or two days’ delay. In fact, where you are competing with many other gardeners, a half day may make a big difference. You can get ahead only by having quick and well-prepared land, planting the earliest varieties and giving the crop good tillage after it has begun to grow.
Some gardeners force early sweet corn by placing a handful of fine manure in each hill, stamping it down hard with the feet. Loose dirt is then kicked over it and sprouted seed planted—that is, seed that has been soaked in warm water until germination has really begun within it. This is a good method where the soil is moist so that the seeds may get a quick start, but it is no good in dry soil. The manure acts like an individual hot-bed for each hill of corn.
Where this plan is used, thorough culture must be given, or the corn roots will remain in the manure during growing time and suffer from drought.
Corn is not the only crop that is benefited by the use of the feet in planting. Wherever the soil must be compacted about the newly planted seed, the feet can be used to advantage. So true is this, that Peter Henderson, the well-known New York gardener and seedsman, wrote a pamphlet called “The Use of the Hands and Feet in Planting,” which is sent free upon application. It is well worth reading.
When it first comes into the market, sweet corn usually brings 25 cents a dozen ears; that is the time for the wide-awake gardener to sell his crop. Later it may fall to five cents a dozen, and usually sells as low as 10 cents; there is no profit in that.
If you pick the first ears as soon as they are well set, the second setting will be much better for it. (Very small, immature ears are fine cooked or raw, to eat, cob and all, but our people are not used to that.) It takes about a peck of corn to plant an acre in hills, and, if well attended to, the plants should yield from 8000 to 10,000 ears to the acre.
The insects and diseases include wire-worms, cut-worms, chinch-bug and corn-stalk disease. Short rotation, including fall cultivation of the land, will check the wire-worms. See Cornell Bulletin 107. Treatment for cut-worms is fully described in Cornell Bulletin 104. Ditching, plowing and harrowing are bad for the chinch-bug and good for your corn. Read Ohio Bulletin 69, Kentucky Bulletin 74, and New York Report 15, pp. 531-533.
It would be fruitless to take up your time with a discussion of corn-stalk disease here, when you can get it all by simply sending for Nebraska Bulletin 52.
OKRA OR GUMBO.
Although okra is really a Southern States perennial, it is cultivated as an annual, the seeds being sown every spring. It is grown for its pods, which are cut while still young and tender, and are much used for soups and stews. Of recent years the pods are also canned and dried for use in winter.
Okra takes about the same treatment as sweet corn, the seeds being sown where the plant is to grow, except in the Northern States. There the seeds are often planted in boxes, pots or sods turned over, simply because the season is not long enough to ripen the plants. The real okra is a large-growing plant that must be planted from one to three feet apart in rows that are three to five feet apart, but the dwarf and early-maturing varieties that are grown in the North, may stand as close as one foot apart in the row. There are no important insects or diseases.
MARTYNIA.
Martynia is grown solely for its half-matured pods which are used in pickles. The plant needs a warm soil, sunny exposure, and much room, as it spreads over three or four feet. It thrives under the same cultivation as is given corn and okra, and may be planted in frames or in the open as soon as the weather is warm enough. It is annual and native from southern Indiana to the Gulf.